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THE  UBRARY  OF  THE 

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NORTH  CAROLINA 

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Robert  G.  Ingersoll 


UffiESDE^  EDITIOM 


g'lriHiFiLArira  of  kobert  (S.ikgmmsoijl! 

AUG,  11.  18  SO. 


THE  WORKS 


OF 


/J 


Ro6ert  G.  Ingersoll 


«'THE   DESTROYER    OF   WEEDS,    THISTLES    AND   THORNS    IS 
A  BENEFACTOR,   WHETHER  HE  SOWETH   GRAIN    OR   NOT." 


IN  TWELVE  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  I. 


LECTURES 


NEW    YORK 

THE  DRESDEN  PUBLISHI 

C.   P.   FARRELL 
MCMIX 


Copyright,  igoo 

BY 

C.     P.     FARRELL 

Copyright,  igoi 

BY 

THE   DRESDEN    PUBLISHING   CO. 


TO 

EVA  A.   INGERSOLL, 

MY  WIFE, 

A  WOMAN  WITHOUT  SUPERSTITION, 

THIS   VOLUME 

IS  DEDICATED. 


r- 

H  M  > 


CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME   I. 

THE  GODS. 

(1872.) 

An  Honest  God  is  the  Noblest  Work  of  Man — Resemblance  of 
Gods  to  their  Creators — Manufacture  and  Characteristics  of  Deities — 
Their  Amours — Deficient  in  many  Departments  of  Knowledge — 
Pleased  with  the  Butchery  of  Unbelievers— A  Plentiful  Supply — Vis- 
itations— One  God's  Laws  of  War — The  Book  called  the  Bible — 
Heresy  of  Universalism — Faith  an  unhappy  mixture  of  Insanity  and 
Ignorance — Fallen  Gods,  or  Devils — Directions  concerning  Human 
Slavery — The  first  Appearance  of  the  Devil — ^The  Tree  of  Knowledge 
— Give  me  the  Storm  and  Tempest  of  Thought — Gods  and  Devils 
Natural  Productions — Personal  Appearance  of  Deities — All  Man's 
Ideas  suggested  by  his  Surroundings — Phenomena  Supposed  to  be 
Produced  by  InteUigent  Powers — Insanity  and  Disease  attributed  to 
Evil  Spirits — Origin  of  the  Priesthood — Temptation  of  Christ — Innate 
Ideas — Divine  Interference — Special  Providence — The  Crane  and  the 
Fish — Cancer  as  a  proof  of  Design — Matter  and  Force — Miracle — 
Passing  the  Hat  for  just  one  Fact — Sir  William  Hamilton  on  Cause 
and  Effect — The  Phenomena  of  Mind — Necessity  and  Free  Will — The 
Dark  Ages — The  Originality  of  Repetition — Of  what  Use  have  the 
Gods  been  to  Man  ? — Paley  and  Design — Make  Good  Health  Conta- 
gious— Periodicity  of  the  Universe  and  the  Commencement  of  Intel- 
lectual Freedom — Lesson  of  the  ineffectual  attempt  to  rescue  the 
Tomb  of  Christ  from  the  Mohammedans — The  Cemetery  of  the  Gods 
— ^Taking  away  Crutches — Imperial  Reason,  .        .        .        7-90 

HUMBOLDT. 

(1869.) 

The  Universe  is  Governed  by  Law — The  Self-made  Man — Poverty 
generally  an  Advantage — Humboldt's  Birth-place — His  desire  for 
Travel — On  what  Humboldt's  Fame  depends — His  Companions  and 
Friends — Investigations  in  the  New  World — A  Picture — Subjects  of 
his  Addresses — ^Victory  of  the  Church  over  Philosophy — Influence  of 
the  discovery  that  the  World  is  governed  by  Law — On  the  term  Law 
— Copernicus  —  Astronomy  —  Aryabhatta — Descartes —  Condition  of 
the  World  and  Man  when  the  morning  of  Science  Dawned — Reasons 
for  Honoring  Humboldt — The  World  his  Monument,  .        93-117 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

(1870.) 
With  his  Name  left  out  the  History  of  Liberty  cannot  be  Written — 
Paine's  Origin  and  Condition — His  arrival  in  America  with  a  Letter 
of  Introduction  by  Franklin — Condition  of  the  Colonies^""  Common 

Cv) 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

Sense" — A  new  Nation  Born — Paine  the  Best  of  Political  Writers— 
The  "  Crisis  " — War  not  to  the  Interest  of  a  trading  Nation— Paine's 
Standing  at  the  Close  of  the  Revolution— Close  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century  in  France— The  "Rights  of  Man  "—Paine  Prosecuted  in 
England — "The  World  is  my  Country" — Elected  to  the  French 
Assembly — Votes  against  the  Death  of  the  King — Imprisoned— A 
look  behind  the  Altar— The  "Age  of  Reason"— His  Argument 
against  the  Bible  as  a  Revelation— Christianity  of  Paine's  Day — A 
Blasphemy  Law  in  Force  in  Maryland— The  Scotch  "  Kirk  " — Hang- 
ing of  Thomas  Aikenhead  for  Denying  the  Inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures— "Cathedrals  and  Domes,  and  Chimes  and  Chants" — Science 
—"  He  Died  in  the  Land  his  Genius  Defended,"       .        .        121-165 

INDIVIDUALITY. 

(1873.) 

"His  Soul  was  like  a  Star  and  Dwelt  Apart  "—Disobedience  one 
of  the  Conditions  of  Progress. — Magellan— The  Monarch  and  the 
Hermit— Why  the  Church  hates  a  Thinker — The  Argument  from 
Grandeur  and  Prosperity— Travelers  and  Guide-boards— A  Degrad- 
ing Saying — Theological  Education— Scotts,  Henrys  and  McKnights 
— The  Church  the  Great  Robber — Corrupting  the  Reason  of  Children 
— Monotony  of  Acquiescence :  For  God's  sake,  say  No — Protest- 
ant Intolerance :  Luther  and  Calvin — Assertion  of  Individual  Inde- 
pendence a  Step  toward  Infidelity— Salute  to  Jupiter— The  Atheistic 
Bug— Little  Religious  Liberty  in  America — God  in  the  Constitution, 
Man  Out — Decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois  that  an  Unbe- 
liever could  not  testify  in  any  Court— Dissimulation — Nobody  in  this 
Bed — The  Dignity  of  a  Unit, 169-206 

HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 
(1874.) 
Liberty,  a  Word  without  which  all  other  Words  are  Vain — The 
Church,  the  Bible,  and  Persecution — Over  the  wild  Waves  of  War 
rose  and  fell  the  Banner  of  Jesus  Christ— Highest  Type  of  the  Ortho- 
dox Christian — Heretics'  Tongues  and  why  they  should  be  Removed 
before  Burning — The  Inquisition  Established — Forms  of  Torture — 
Act  of  Henry  VIII  for  aboHshin^  Diversity  of  Opinion — What  a  Good 
Christian  was  Obliged  to  Believe— The  Church  has  Carried  the  Black 
Flag — For  what  Men  and  Women  have  been  Burned— John  Calvin's 
Advent  into  the  World — His  Infamous  Acts — Michael  Servetus — 
Castalio  —  Spread  of  Presbyterianism— Indictment  of  a  Presby- 
terian Minister  in  Illinois  for  Heresy  —  Specifications— The  Real 
Bible, 210-253 

THE  GHOSTS. 

(1877.) 

Dedication  to  Ebon  C.  IngersoU— Preface— Mendacity  of  the  Re- 
ligious Press— "  Materialism  "—Ways  of  Pleasing  the  Ghosts— The 
Idea  of  Immortality  not  Born  of  any  Book— Witchcraft  and  Demon- 
ology— Witch  Trial  before  Sir  Matthew  Hale— John  Wesley  a  Firm 
Believer  in  Ghosts— "Witch-spots  "—Lycanthropy— Animals  Tried 


CONTENTS.  Vii 

and  Convicted— The  Governor  of  Minnesota  and  the  Grasshoppers— 
A  Papal  Bull  against  Witchcraft— Victims  of  the  Delusion — Sir 
William  Blackstone's  Affirmation — Trials  in  Belgium — Incubi  and 
Succubi— A  Bishop  Personated  by  the  Devil— The  Doctrine  that  Dis- 
eases are  caused  by  Ghosts — Treatment— Timothy  Dwight  against 
Vaccination— Ghosts  as  Historians— The  Language  of  Eden — Leib- 
nitz, Founder  of  the  Science  of  Language — Cosmas  on  Astronomy — 
Vagaries  of  Kepler  and  Tycho  Brahe — Discovery  of  Printing,  Pow- 
der, and  America — Thanks  to  the  Inventors — The  Catholic  Murderer 
and  the  Meat— Let  the  Ghosts  Go, 257-326 


i^    THE  LIBERTY  OF  MAN,  WOMAN,  AND  CHILD. 

(1877.) 

Liberty  sustains  the  same  Relation  to  Mind  that  Space  does  to 
Matter — The  History  of  Man  a  History  of  Slavery— The  Infidel— Our 
Fathers  in  the  good  old  Time— The  iron  Arguments  that  Christians 
Used— Instruments  of  Torture— A  Vision  of  the  Inquisition — Models 
of  Man's  Inventions — Weapons,  Armor,  Musical  Instruments,  Paint- 
ings, Books,  Skulls— The  Gentleman  in  the  Dug-out — Homage  to 
Genius  and  Intellect— Abraham  Lincoln— What  I  mean  by  Liberty— 
The  Man  who  cannot  afford  to  Speak  his  Thought  is  a  Certificate  of 
the  Meanness  of  the  Community  in  which  he  Resides— Liberty  of 
Woman — Marriage  and  the  Family — Ornaments  the  Souvenirs  of 
Bondage— The  Story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden— Adami  and  Heva— 
Equality  of  the  Sexes— The  word  "Boss"— The  Cross  Man— The 
Stingy  Man — Wives  who  are  Beggars— How  to  Spend  Money— By  the 
Tomb  of  the  Old  Napoleon — The  Woman  you  Love  will  never  Grow 
Old —Liberty  of  Children— When  your  Child  tells  a  Lie— Disowning 
Children — Beating  your  own  Flesh  and  Blood — Make  Home  Pleasant 
— Sunday  when  I  was  a  Boy — The  Laugh  of  a  Child — The  doctrine  of 
Eternal  Punishment — ^Jonathan  Edwards  on  the  Happiness  of  Believ- 
ing Husbands  whose  Wives  are  in  Hell — The  Liberty  of  Eating 
and  Sleeping— Water  in  Fever— Soil  and  Climate  necessary  to  the 
production  of  Genius — Against  Annexing  Santo  Domingo — Descent 
of  Man — Conclusion,  • 329-398 

ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

(1877.) 
To  Plow  is  to  Pray  ;  to  Plant  is  to  Prophesy,  and  the  Harvest  An- 
swers and  Fulfills— The  Old  Way  of  Farming — Cooking  an  Unknown 
Art— Houses,  Fuei,  and  Crops — The  Farmer's  Boy — What  a  Farmer 
should  Sell— Beautifying  the  Home— Advantages  of  Illinois  as  a 
Farming  State— Advantages  of  the  Farmer  over  the  Mechanic— Farm 
Life  too  Lonely— On  Early  Rising— Sleep  the  Best  Doctor— Fashion 
— Patriotism  and  Boarding  Houses — The  Farmer  and  the  Railroads 
— Money  and  Confidence — Demonetization  of  Silver— Area  of  Illinois 
— Mortgages  and  Interest — Kindness  to  Wives  and  Children — How  a 
Beefsteak  should  be  Cooked — Decorations  and  Comfort— Let  the 
Children  Sleep- -Old  Age, 401-438 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

(1880.) 

Preface — The  Synoptic  Gospels— Only  Mark  Knew  of  the  Necessity 
of  Belief— Three  Christs  Described— The  Jewish  Gentleman  and  the 
Piece  of  Bacon— Who  Wrote  the  New  Testament  ?— Why  Christ  and 
the  Apostles  wrote  Nothing— Infinite  Respect  for  the  Man  Christ- 
Different  Feeling  for  the  Theological  Christ — Saved  from  What? 
—  Chapter  on  the  Gospel  of  Matthew— What  this  Gospel  says  we 
must  do  to  be  Saved— Jesus  and  the  Children— John  Calvin  and 
Jonathan  Edwards  conceived  of  as  Dimpled  Darlings — Christ  and  the 
Man  who  inquired  what  Good  Thing  he  should  do  that  he  might 
have  Eternal  Life — Nothing  said  about  Belief— An  Interpolation — 
Chapter  on  the  Gospel  of  Mark — The  Believe  or  be  Damned  Passage, 
and  why  it  was  written — The  last  Conversation  of  Christ  with  his 
Disciples — The  Signs  that  Follow  them  that  Believe— Chapter  on  the 
Gospel  of  Luke— Substantial  Agreement  with  Matthew  and  Mark — 
How  Zaccheus  achieved  Salvation— The  two  Thieves  on  the  Cross 
— Chapter  on  the  Gospel  of  John— The  Doctrine  of  Regeneration,  or 
the  New  Birth  —Shall  we  Love  our  Enemies  while  God  Damns  His  ? 
—Chapter  on  the  Catholics — Communication  with  Heaven  through 
Decayed  Saints — Nuns  and  Nunneries — Penitentiaries  of  God  should 
be  Investigated— The  Athanasian  Creed  expounded— The  Trinity 
and  its  Members — Chapter  on  the  Episcopalians — Origin  of  the 
Episcopal  Church — Apostolic  Succession  an  Imported  Article — Epis- 
copal Creed  like  the  Catholic,  with  a  few  Additional  Absurdities — 
Chapter  on  the  Methodists — Wesley  and  Whitfield — Their  Quarrel 
about  Predestination — Much  Preaching  for  Little  Money — Adapted  to 
New  Countries— Chapter  on  the  Presbyterians— John  Calvin,  Mur- 
derer— Meeting  between  Calvin  and  Knox — The  Infamy  of  Calvinism 
—Division  in  the  Church — The  Young  Presbyterian's  Resignation  to 
the  Fate  of  his  Mother — A  Frightful,  Hideous,  and  Hellish  Creed- 
Chapter  on  the  Evangelical  AUiance— Jeremy  Taylor's  Opinion  of 
Baptists — Orthodoxy  not  Dead— Creed  of  the  Alliance — Total  De- 
pravity, Eternal  Damnation — What  do  You  Propose  ?— The  Gospel  of 
Good-fellowship,  Cheerfulness,  Health,  Good  Living,  Justice — No 
Forgiveness— God's  Forgiveness  Does  not  Pay  my  Debt  to  Smith — 
Gospel  of  Liberty,  of  Intelligence,  of  Humanity— One  World  at  a 
Time— "Upon  that  Rock  I  Stand,"     .       .       .       -       .       441-525 


PUBLISHER'S  Preface. 

IN  presenting  to  the  public  this  edition  of  the 
late  Robert  G.  Ingersoll's  works,  it  has  been 
the  aim  of  the  publisher  to  make  it  worthy  of  the 
author  and  a  pleasure  to  his  friends  and  admirers. 
No  one  can  be  more  conscious  than  he  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  task  undertaken,  or  more  keenly  feel 
how  far  short  it  must  fall  of  adequate  accomplish- 
ment. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  countless  utterances 
of  the  author  were  never  caught  from  his  eloquent 
lips,  it  is  matter  for  congratulation  that  so  much  has 
been  preserved.  The  authorized  addresses,  argu- 
ments and  articles  that  have  already  appeared  in 
print  and  passed  the  review  of  the  author's  more  or 
less  careful  inspection,  will  be  readily  recognized  as 
accurate  and  complete  ;  but  in  this  latest  and  fullest 
compilation  are  many  emanations  from  his  heart  and 

brain  that  have  never  had  his  scrutiny,  were  not 

(1) 


2  PUBLISHERS    PREFACE. 

revised  by  him,  and  that  yet,  by  general  judgment, 
should  not  be  lost  to  the  world. 

These  unedited  sundries  consist  of  fragments 
of  speeches  and  incompleted  articles  discovered 
amongst  the  author's  literary  remains  and  for  un- 
known reasons  left  in  more  or  less  unfinished  form. 
It  has  been  the  publisher's  ambition  to  gather  these 
fugitive  pieces  and  place  them  in  this  edition  by  the 
side  of  the  saved  treasures.  Whether  the  work  has 
been  well  or  ill  done  a  generous  public  must  de- 
cide, while  the  sole  responsibility  must  rest  with, 
as  it  has  been  assumed  by,  the  publisher. 

In  carrying  out  the  design  of  the  present  edition, 
the  publisher  gratefully  acknowledges  the  assistance 
of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  family,  who  have  freely  placed  at 
his  disposal  many  papers,  inscriptions,  monographs, 
memoranda  and  pages  of  valuable  material. 

Recognition  is  also  here  made  of  the  kind  court- 
esy of  the  press  and  of  publishers  of  magazines  who 
have  generously  permitted  the  publication  of  articles 
originally  written  for  them. 

Finally,  the  publisher  gives  his  thanks  to  all  the 
devoted  friends  of  the  author  who  in  many  ways,  by 
suggestion  and  unselfish  labor,  have  aided  in  getting 
out  this  work.     Of  these,  none  have  been   more 


PUBLISHER  S    PREFACE.  3 

unremitting  in  service,  and  to  none  is  the  publish- 
er more  indebted,  than  to  Mr.  I.  Newton  Baker, 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  former  private  secretary,  to  Dr. 
Edgar  C.  Beall,  and  to  Mr.  George  E.  Macdonald  for 
the  fine  Tables  of  Contents  and  the  very  valuable 
Index  to  this  edition. 

C  P.  FARRELL. 
New  York,  July,  igoo. 


THE  GODS. 


THE   GODS. 


An  Honest  God  is  the  Noblest  Work  of  Man. 

EACH  nation  has  created  a  god,  and  the  god 
has  always  resembled  his  creators.  He 
hated  and  loved  what  they  hated  and  loved,  and 
he  was  invariably  found  on  the  side  of  those  in 
power.  Each  god  was  intensely  patriotic,  and 
detested  all  nations  but  his  own.  All  these  gods 
demanded  praise,  flattery,  and  worship.  Most  of 
them  were  pleased  with  sacrifice,  and  the  smell 
of  innocent  blood  has  ever  been  considered  a 
divine  perfume.  All  these  gods  have  insisted 
upon  having  a  vast  number  of  priests,  and  the 
priests  have  always  insisted  upon  being  supported 
by  the  people,  and  the  principal  business  of  these 
prifests  has  been  to  boast  about  their  god,  and  to 
insist  that  he  could  easily  vanquish  all  the  other 
gods  put  together. 


8  THE  GODS. 

These  gods  have  been  manufactured  after 
numberless  models,  and  according  to  the  most 
grotesque  fashions.  Some  have  a  thousand  arms, 
some  a  hundred  heads,  some  are  adorned  with 
necklaces  of  living  snakes,  some  are  armed  with 
clubs,  some  with  sword  and  shield,  some  with 
bucklers,  and  some  have  wings  as  a  cherub ;  some 
were  invisible,  some  would  show  themselves  entire, 
and  some  would  only  show  their  backs;  some 
were  jealous,  some  were  foolish,  some  turned 
themselves  into  men,  some  into  swans,  some  into 
bulls,  some  into  doves,  and  some  into  Holy  Ghosts, 
and  made  love  to  the  beautiful  daughters  of  men. 
Some  were  married  —  all  ought  to  have  been  — 
and  some  were  considered  as  old  bachelors  from 
all  eternity.  Some  had  children,  and  the  children 
were  turned  into  gods  and  worshiped  as  their 
fathers  had  been.  Most  of  these  gods  were 
revengeful,  savage,  lustful,  and  ignorant.  As  they 
generally  depended  upon  their  priests  for  infor- 
mation, their  ignorance  can  hardly  excite  our 
astonishment. 

These  gods  did  not  even  know  the  shape  of 
the  worlds  they  had  created,  but  supposed  them 
perfectly  flat     Some   thought   the   day  could   be 


THE  GODS.  9 

lengthened  by  stopping  the  sun,  that  the  blowing 
of  horns  could  throw  down  the  walls  of  a  city, 
and  all  knew  so  little  of  the  real  nature  of  the 
people  they  had  created,  that  they  commanded 
the  people  to  love  them.  Some  were  so  ignorant 
as  to  suppose  that  man  could  believe  just  as  he 
might  desire,  or  as  they  might  command,  and  that 
to  be  governed  by  observation,  reason,  and  experi- 
ence was  a  most  foul  and  damning  sin.  None  of 
these  gods  could  give  a  true  account  of  the  crea- 
tion of  this  little  earth.  All  were  wofully  deficient 
in  geology  and  astronomy.  As  a  rule,  they  were 
most  miserable  legislators,  and  as  executives,  they 
were  far  inferior  to  the  average  of  American 
presidents. 

These  deities  have  demanded  the  most  abject 
and  degrading  obedience.  In  order  to  please 
them,  man  must  lay  his  very  face  in  the  dust 
Of  course,  they  have  always  been  partial  to  the 
people  who  created  them,  and  have  generally 
shown  their  partiality  by  assisting  those  people 
to  rob  and  destroy  others,  and  to  ravish  their 
wives  and  daughters. 

Nothing  is  so  pleasing  to  these  gods  as  the 
butchery    of    unbelievers.      Nothing    so    enrages 


10  THE  GODS. 

them,  even  now,  as  to  have  some  one  deny  their 
existence. 

Few  nations  have  been  so  poor  as  to  have  but 
one  god.  Gods  were  made  so  easily,  and  the  raw 
material  cost  so  little,  that  generally  the  god  mar- 
ket was  fairly  glutted,  and  heaven  crammed  with 
these  phantoms.  These  gods  not  only  attended  to 
the  skies,  but  were  supposed  to  interfere  in  all  the 
affairs  of  men.  They  presided  over  everybody  and 
everything.  They  attended  to  every  department 
All  was  supposed  to  be  under  their  immediate  con- 
trol. Nothing  was  too  small  —  nothing  too  large  ; 
the  falling  of  sparrows  and  the  motions  of  the 
planets  were  alike  attended  to  by  these  industrious 
and  observing  deities.  From  their  starry  thrones 
they  frequently  came  to  the  earth  for  the  purpose 
of  imparting  information  to  man.  It  is  related  of 
one  that  he  came  amid  thunderings  and  lightnings 
in  order  to  tell  the  people  that  they  should  not 
cook  a  kid  In  its  mother's  milk.  Some  left  their 
shining  abodes  to  tell  women  that  they  should,  or 
should  not,  have  children,  to  inform  a  priest  how 
to  cut  and  wear  his  apron,  and  to  give  directions 
as  to  the  proper  manner  of  cleaning  the  intestines 
of  a  bird. 


THE  GODS.  11 

When  the  people  failed  to  worship  one  of  these 
gods,  or  failed  to  feed  and  clothe  his  priests,  (which 
was  much  the  same  thing,)  he  generally  visited 
them  with  pestilence  and  famine.  Sometimes  he 
allowed  some  other  nation  to  drag  them  into  slav- 
ery— to  sell  their  wives  and  children ;  but  gen- 
erally he  glutted  his  vengeance  by  murdering  their 
first-born.  The  priests  always  did  their  whole 
duty,  not  only  in  predicting  these  calamities,  but  in 
proving,  when  they  did  happen,  that  they  were 
brought  upon  the  people  because  they  had  not 
given  quite  enough  to  them. 

These  gods  differed  just  as  the  nations  differed  ; 
the  greatest  and  most  powerful  had  the  most  pow- 
erful gods,  while  the  weaker  ones  were  obliged  to 
content  themselves  with  the  very  off-scourings  of  the 
heavens.  Each  of  these  gods  promised  happiness 
here  and  hereafter  to  all  his  slaves,  and  threatened 
to  eternally  punish  all  who  either  disbelieved  in  his 
existence  or  suspected  that  some  other  god  might 
be  his  superior ;  but  to  deny  the  existence  of  all 
gods  was,  and  is,  the  crime  of  crimes.  Redden 
your  hands  with  human  blood ;  blast  by  slander  the 
fair  fame  of  the  innocent;  strangle  the  smiling 
child  upon  its  mother's  knees ;  deceive,  ruin  and 


1«  THE  GODS. 

desert  the  beautiful  girl  who  loves  and  trusts  you, 
and  your  case  is  not  hopeless.  For  all  this,  and  for 
all  these  you  may  be  forgiven.  For  all  this,  and  for 
all  these,  that  bankrupt  court  established  by  the 
gospel,  will  give  you  a  discharge ;  but  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  these  divine  ghosts,  of  these  gods,  and 
the  sweet  and  tearful  face  of  Mercy  becomes  livid 
with  eternal  hate.  Heaven's  golden  gates  are  shut, 
and  you,  with  an  infinite  curse  ringing  in  your  ears, 
with  the  brand  of  infamy  upon  your  brow,  com- 
mence your  endless  wanderings  in  the  lurid  gloom 
of  hell  —  an  immortal  vagrant — an  eternal  outcast 
—  a  deathless  convict. 

One  of  these  gods,  and  one  who  demands  our 
love,  our  admiration  and  our  worship,  and  one  who 
is  worshiped,  if  mere  heartless  ceremony  is  worship, 
gave  to  his  chosen  people  for  their  guidance,  the 
following  laws  of  war :  "  When  thou  comest  nigh 
unto  a  city  to  fight  against  it,  then  proclaim  peace 
unto  it.  And  it  shall  be  if  it  make  thee  answer 
of  peace,  and  open  unto  thee,  then  it  shall  be 
that  all  the  people  that  is  found  therein  shall  be 
tributaries  unto  thee,  and  they  shall  serve  thee. 
And  if  it  will  make  no  peace  with  thee,  but  will 
make  war  against  thee,  then  thou  shalt  besiege  it. 


THE  GODS.  13 

And  when  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  delivered  it  into 
thy  hands,  thou  shalt  smite  every  male  thereof  with 
the  edge  of  the  sword.  But  the  women  and  the 
little  ones,  and  the  cattle,  and  all  that  is  in  the  city, 
even  all  the  spoil  thereof,  shalt  thou  take  unto  thy- 
self, and  thou  shalt  eat  the  spoil  of  thine  enemies 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee.  Thus 
shalt  thou  do  unto  all  the  cities  which  are  very  far 
off  from  thee,  which  are  not  of  the  cities  of  these 
nations.  But  of  the  cities  of  these  people  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  doth  give  thee  for  an  inheritance, 
thou  shalt  save  alive  nothing  that  breathethy 

Is  it  possible  for  man  to  conceive  of  anything 
more  perfectly  infamous?  Can  you  believe  that 
such  directions  were  given  by  any  being  except  an 
infinite  fiend  ?  Remember  that  the  army  receiving 
these  instructions  was  one  of  invasion.  Peace  was 
offered  upon  condition  that  the  people  submitting 
should  be  the  slaves  of  the  invader;  but  if  any 
should  have  the  courage  to  defend  their  homes, 
to  fight  for  the  love  of  wife  and  child,  then  the 
sword  was  to  spare  none — not  even  the  prattling, 
dimpled  babe. 

And  we  are  called  upon  to  worship  such  a 
God ;  to  get  upon  our  knees  and  tell  him  that  he 


14  THE  GODS. 

is  good,  that  he  is  merciful,  that  he  is  just,  that 
he  is  love.  We  are  asked  to  stifle  every  noble 
sentiment  of  the  soul,  and  to  trample  under  foot 
all  the  sweet  charities  of  the  heart.  Because  we 
refuse  to  stultify  ourselves  —  refuse  to  become 
liars — we  are  denounced,  hated,  traduced  and  os- 
tracized here,  and  this  same  god  threatens  to  tor- 
ment us  in  eternal  fire  the  moment  death  allows 
him  to  fiercely  clutch  our  naked  helpless  souls. 
Let  the  people  hate,  let  the  god  threaten — we 
will  educate  them,  and  we  will  despise  and  defy 
him. 

The  book,  called  the  Bible,  is  filled  with  pas- 
sages equally  horrible,  unjust  and  atrocious.  This 
is  the  book  to  be  read  in  schools  in  order  to  make 
our  children  loving,  kind  and  gentle  !  This  is  the 
book  to  be  recognized  in  our  Constitution  as  the 
source  of  all  authority  and  justice  ! 

Strange !  that  no  one  has  ever  been  persecuted 
by  the  church  for  believing  God  bad,  while  hun- 
dreds of  millions  have  been  destroyed  for  thinking 
him  good.  The  orthodox  church  never  will  forgive 
the  Universalist  for  saying  "  God  is  love."  It  has 
always  been  considered  as  one  of  the  very  highest 
evidences  of  true  and  undefiled  religion  to  insist 


THE  GODS.  16 

that  all  men,  women  and  children  deserve  eternal 
damnation.  It  has  always  been  heresy  to  say, 
"  God  will  at  last  save  all." 

We  are  asked  to  justify  these  frightful  passages, 
these  infamous  laws  of  war,  because  the  Bible  is 
the  word  of  God.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  never 
was,  and  there  never  can  be,  an  argument,  even 
tending  to  prove  the  inspiration  of  any  book  what- 
ever. In  the  absence  of  positive  evidence,  analogy 
and  experience,  argument  is  simply  impossible,  and 
at  the  very  best,  can  amount  only  to  a  useless  agita- 
tion of  the  air.  The  instant  we  admit  that  a  book 
is  too  sacred  to  be  doubted,  or  even  reasoned  about, 
we  are  mental  serfs.  It  is  infinitely  absurd  to  sup- 
pose that  a  god  would  address  a  communication  to 
intelligent  beings,  and  yet  make  it  a  crime,  to  be 
punished  in  eternal  flames,  for  them  to  use  their 
intelligence  for  the  purpose  of  understanding  his 
communication.  If  we  have  the  right  to  use  our 
reason,  we  certainly  have  the  right  to  act  in  accord- 
ance with  it,  and  no  god  can  have  the  right  to 
punish  us  for  such  action. 

The  doctrine  that  future  happiness  depends 
upon  belief  is  monstrous.  It  is  the  infamy  of 
infamies.     The  notion  that  faith  in  Christ  is  to 


16  THE  GODS. 

be  rewarded  by  an  eternity  of  bliss,  while  a  de- 
pendence upon  reason,  observation,  and  expe- 
rience merits  everlasting  pain,  is  too  absurd  for 
refutation,  and  can  be  relieved  only  by  that  un- 
happy mixture  of  insanity  and  ignorance,  called 
"  faith."  What  man,  who  ever  thinks,  can  believe 
that  blood  can  appease  God  ?  And  yet,  our  entire 
system  of  religion  is  based  upon  that  belief.  The 
Jews  pacified  Jehovah  with  the  blood  of  animals, 
and  according  to  the  Christian  system,  the  blood 
of  Jesus  softened  the  heart  of  God  a  little,  and 
rendered  possible  the  salvation  of  a  fortunate  few. 
It  is  hard  to  conceive  how  the  human  mind  can 
give  assent  to  such  terrible  ideas,  or  how  any 
sane  man  can  read  the  Bible  and  still  believe  in 
the  doctrine  of  inspiration. 

Whether  the  Bible  is  true  or  false,  is  of  no 
consequence  in  comparison  with  the  mental  free- 
dom of  the  race. 

Salvation  through  slavery  is  worthless.  Salva- 
tion from  slavery  is  inestimable. 

As  long  as  man  believes  the  Bible  to  be  infalli- 
ble, that  book  is  his  master.  The  civilization 
of  this  century  is  not  the  child  of  faith,  but  of 
unbelief — the  result  of  free  thought. 


THE  GODS.  17 

All  that  is  necessary,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to 
convince  any  reasonable  person  that  the  Bible  is 
simply  and  purely  of  human  invention  —  of  bar- 
barian invention  —  is  to  read  it  Read  it  as  you 
Would  any  other  book ;  think  of  it  as  you  would 
of  any  other ;  get  the  bandage  of  reverence  from 
your  eyes ;  drive  from  your  heart  the  phantom 
of  fear;  push  from  the  throne  of  your  brain  the 
cowled  form  of  superstition — then  read  the  Holy 
Bible,  and  you  will  be  amazed  that  you  ever,  for 
one  moment,  supposed  a  being  of  infinite  wisdom, 
goodness  and  purity,  to  be  the  author  of  such 
ignorance  and  of  such  atrocity. 

Our  ancestors  not  only  had  their  god-factories, 
but  they  made  devils  as  well.  These  devils  were 
generally  disgraced  and  fallen  gods.  Some  had 
headed  unsuccessful  revolts  ;  some  had  been  caught 
sweetly  reclining  in  the  shadowy  folds  of  some 
fleecy  cloud,  kissing  the  wife  of  the  god  of  gods. 
These  devils  generally  sympathized  with  man. 
There  is  in  regard  to  them  a  most  wonderful 
fact :  In  nearly  all  the  theologies,  mythologies 
and  religions,  the  devils  have  been  much  more 
humane  and  merciful  than  the  gods.  No  devil 
ever   gave   one  of  his  generals  an    order  to  kill 


18  THE  GODS. 

children  and  to  rip  open  the  bodies  of  pregnant 
women.  Such  barbarities  were  always  ordered  by 
the  good  gods.  The  pestilences  were  sent  by  the 
most  merciful  gods.  The  frightful  famine,  during 
which  the  dying  child  with  pallid  lips  sucked  the 
withered  bosom  of  a  dead  mother,  was  sent  by 
the  loving  gods.  No  devil  was  ever  charged  with 
such  fiendish  brutality. 

One  of  these  gods,  according  to  the  account, 
drowned  an  entire  world,  with  the  exception  of 
eight  persons.  The  old,  the  young,  the  beautiful 
and  the  helpless  were  remorsely  devoured  by  the 
shoreless  sea.  This,  the  most  fearful  tragedy 
that  the  imagination  of  ignorant  priests  ever  con- 
ceived, was  the  act,  not  of  a  devil,  but  of  a  god, 
so-called,  whom  men  ignorantly  worship  unto  this 
day.  What  a  stain  such  an  act  would  leave  upon 
the  character  of  a  devil!  One  of  the  prophets 
of  one  of  these  gods,  having  in  his  power  a  cap- 
tured king,  hewed  him  in  pieces  in  the  sight  of 
all  the  people.  Was  ever  any  imp  of  any  devil 
guilty  of  such  savagery.? 

One  of  these  gods  is  reported  to  have  given 
the  following  directions  concerning  human  slavery : 
"If  thou    buy  a    Hebrew   servant,  six    years  shall 


THE  GODS.  19 

he  serve,  and  in  the  seventh  he  shall  go  out  free 
for  nothing.  If  he  came  in  by  himself,  he  shall 
go  out  by  himself;  if  he  were  married,  then  his 
wife  shall  go  out  with  him.  If  his  master  have 
given  him  a  wife,  and  she  have  borne  him  sons 
or  daughters,  the  wife  and  her  children  shall  be 
her  master's,  and  he  shall  go  out  by  himself.  And 
if  the  servant  shall  plainly  say,  I  love  my  master, 
my  wife  and  my  children  ;  I  will  not  go  out  free. 
Then  his  master  shall  bring  him  unto  the  judges ; 
he  shall  also  bring  him  unto  the  door,  or  unto 
the  door-post ;  and  his  master  shall  bore  his  ear 
through  with  an  awl ;  and  he  shall  serve  him  for- 
ever. 

According  to  this,  a  man  was  given  liberty  upon 
condition  that  he  would  desert  forever  his  wife  and 
children.  Did  any  devil  ever  force  upon  a  hus- 
band, upon  a  father,  so  cruel  and  so  heartless  an 
alternative  ?  Who  can  worship  such  a  god  ?  Who 
can  bend  the  knee  to  such  a  monster?  Who  can 
pray  to  such  a  fiend  ? 

All  these  gods  threatened  to  torment  forever 
the  souls  of  their  enemies.  Did  any  devil  ever 
make  so  infamous  a  threat  ?  The  basest  thing  re- 
corded of  the  devil,  is  what  he  did  concerning  Job 


20  THE  GODS, 

and  his  family,  and  that  was  done  by  the  express 
permission  of  one  of  these  gods,  and  to  decide  a 
little  difference  of  opinion  between  their  serene 
highnesses  as  to  the  character  of"  my  servant  Job." 
The  first  account  we  have  of  the  devil  is  found 
in  that  purely  scientific  book  called  Genesis,  and  is 
as  follows :  "  Now  the  serpent  was  more  subtile 
than  any  beast  of  the  field  which  the  Lord  God 
had  made,  and  he  said  unto  the  woman,  Yea,  hath 
God  said,  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  trees 
of  the  garden  ?  And  the  woman  said  unto  the  ser- 
pent. We  may  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  trees  of  the 
garden ;  but  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  which  is  in  the 
midst  of  the  garden  God  hath  said.  Ye  shall  not 
eat  of  it,  neither  shall  ye  touch  it,  lest  ye  die. 
And  the  serpent  said  unto  the  woman.  Ye  shall 
not  surely  die.  For  God  doth  know  that  in  the 
day  ye  eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened 
and  ye  shall  be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil. 
And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good 
for  food,  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and 
a  tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took 
of  the  fruit  thereof  and  did  eat,  and  gave  also 
unto  her  husband  with  her,  and  he  did  eat.  *  * 
And  the  Lord  God  said,  Behold  the  man  is  be- 


THE  GODS.  21 

come  as  one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil ;  and 
now,  lest  he  put  forth  his  hand,  and  take  also  of 
the  tree  of  life  and  eat,  and  live  forever.  There- 
fore the  Lord  God  sent  him  forth  from  the  Garden 
of  Eden  to  till  the  ground  from  which  he  was 
taken.  So  he  drove  out  the  man,  and  he  placed 
at  the  east  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  cherubim  and 
a  flaming  sword,  which  turned  every  way  to  keep 
the  way  of  the  tree  of  life." 

According  to  this  account  the  promise  of  the 
devil  was  fulfilled  to  the  very  letter.  Adam  and 
Eve  did  not  die,  and  they  did  become  as  gods,  know- 
ing good  and  evil. 

The  account  shows,  however,  that  the  gods 
dreaded  education  and  knowledge  then  just  as  they 
do  now.  The  church  still  faithfully  guards  the 
dangerous  tree  of  knowledge,  and  has  exerted  in 
all  ages  her  utmost  power  to  keep  mankind  from 
eating  the  fruit  thereof,  The  priests  have  never 
ceased  repeating  the  old  falsehood  and  the  old 
threat:  "Ye  shall  not  eat  of  it,  neither  shall  ye 
touch  it,  lest  ye  die."  From  every  pulpit  comes  the 
same  cry,  born  of  the  same  fear :  "  Lest  they  eat 
and  become  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil."  For 
this  reason,  religion  hates  science,  faith  detests  rea- 


22  THE  GODS. 

son,  theology  is  the  sworn  enemy  of  philosophy, 
and  the  church  with  its  flaming  sword  still  guards 
the  hated  tree,  and  like  its  supposed  founder,  curses 
to  the  lowest  depths  the  brave  thinkers  who  eat 
and  become  as  gods. 

If  the  account  given  in  Genesis  is  really  true, 
ought  we  not,  after  all,  to  thank  this  serpent  ?  He 
was  the  first  schoolmaster,  the  first  advocate  of 
learning,  the  first  enemy  of  ignorance,  the  first  to 
whisper  in  human  ears  the  sacred  word  liberty,  the 
creator  of  ambition,  the  author  of  modesty,  of  in- 
quiry, of  doubt,  of  investigation,  of  progress  and 
of  civilization. 

Give  me  the  storm  and  tempest  of  thought  and 
action,  rather  than  the  dead  calm  of  ignorance  and 
faith !  Banish  me  from  Eden  when  you  will ;  but 
first  let  me  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge ! 

Some  nations  have  borrowed  their  gods ;  of 
this  number,  we  are  compelled  to  say,  is  our  own. 
The  Jews  having  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation,  and 
having  no  further  use  for  a  god,  our  ancestors 
appropriated  him  and  adopted  their  devil  at  the 
same  time.  This  borrowed  god  is  still  an  object 
of  some  adoration,  and  this  adopted  devil  still  ex- 
cites the  apprehensions  of  our  people.     He  is  still 


THE  GODS.  23 

supposed  to  be  setting  his  traps  and  snares  for  the 
purpose  of  catching  our  unwary  souls,  and  is  still, 
with  reasonable  success,  waging  the  old  war  against 
our  God. 

To  me,  it  seems  easy  to  account  for  these  ideas 
concerning  gods  and  devils.  They  are  a  perfectly 
natural  production.  Man  has  created  them  all, 
and  under  the  same  circumstances  would  create 
them  again.  Man  has  not  only  created  all  these 
gods,  but  he  has  created  them  out  of  the  materials 
by  which  he  has  been  surrounded.  Generally  he 
has  modeled  them  after  himself,  and  has  given 
them  hands,  heads,  feet,  eyes,  ears,  and  organs  of 
speech.  Each  nation  made  its  gods  and  devils 
speak  its  language  not  only,  but  put  in  their 
mouths  the  same  mistakes  in  history,  geography, 
astronomy,  and  in  all  matters  of  fact,  generally 
made  by  the  people.  No  god  was  ever  in  advance 
of  the  nation  that  created  him.  The  negroes  rep- 
resented their  deities  with  black  skins  and  curly 
hair.  The  Mongolian  gave  to  his  a  yellow  com- 
plexion and  dark  almond-shaped  eyes.  The  Jews 
were  not  allowed  to  paint  theirs,  or  we  should 
have  seen  Jehovah  with  a  full  beard,  an  oval  face, 
and  an  aquiline  nose.     Zeus  was  a  perfect  Greek, 


X. 


24  THE  GODS. 

and  Jove  looked  as  though  a  member  of  the 
Roman  senate.  The  gods  of  Egypt  had  the 
patient  face  and  placid  look  of  the  loving  people 
who  made  them.  The  gods  of  northern  countries 
were  represented  warmly  clad  in  robes  of  fur ; 
those  of  the  tropics  were  naked.  The  gods  of 
India  were  often  mounted  upon  elephants ;  those 
of  some  islanders  were  great  swimmers,  and  the 
deities  of  the  Arctic  zone  were  passionately  fond 
of  whale's  blubber.  Nearly  all  people  have  carved 
or  painted  representations  of  their  gods,  and 
these  representations  were,  by  the  lower  classes, 
generally  treated  as  the  real  gods,  and  to  these 
images  and  idols  they  addressed  prayers  and 
offered  sacrifice. 

"  In  some  countries,  even  at  this  day,  if  the 
people  after  long  praying  do  not  obtain  their 
desires,  they  turn  their  images  off  as  impotent 
gods,  or  upbraid  them  in  a  most  reproachful 
manner,  loading  them  with  blows  and  curses. 
'  How  now,  dog  of  a  spirit,'  they  say,  '  we  give 
you  lodging  in  a  magnificent  temple,  we  gild  you 
with  gold,  feed  you  with  the  choicest  food,  and 
offer  incense  to  you ;  yet,  after  all  this  care,  you 
are  so  ungrateful  as  to  refuse  us  what  we  ask.' 


THE  GODS.  25 

Hereupon  they  will  pull  the  g-od  down  and  drag 
him  through  the  filth  of  the  street.  If,  in  the 
meantime,  it  happens  that  they  obtain  their  re- 
quest, then,  with  a  great  deal  of  ceremony,  they 
wash  him  clean,  carry  him  back  and  place  him 
in  his  temple  again,  where  they  fall  down  and 
make  excuses  for  what  they  have  done.  *  Of  a 
truth, '  they  say,  '  we  were  a  little  too  hasty,  and 
you  were  a  little  too  long  in  your  grant.  Why 
should  you  bring  this  beating  on  yourself.  But 
what  is  done  cannot  be  undone.  Let  us  not  think 
of  it  any  more.  If  you  will  forget  what  is  past 
we  will  gild  you  over  brighter  again  than  before.' " 

Man  has  never  been  at  a  loss  for  gods.  He 
has  worshiped  almost  everything,  including  the 
vilest  and  most  disgusting  beasts.  He  has  wor- 
shiped fire,  earth,  air,  water,  light,  stars,  and  for 
hundreds  of  ages  prostrated  himself  before  enor- 
mous snakes.  Savage  tribes  often  make  gods  of 
articles  they  get  from  civilized  people.  The  To- 
das  worship  a  cow-bell.  The  Kotas  worship  two 
silver  plates,  which  they  regard  as  husband  and 
wife,  and  another  tribe  manufactured  a  god  out 
of  a  king  of  hearts. 

Man,  having  always  been  the  physical  superior 


26  THE  GODS. 

of  woman,  accounts  for  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
high  gods  have  been  males.  Had  woman  been 
the  physical  superior,  the  powers  supposed  to  be 
the  rulers  of  Nature  would  have  been  women,  and 
instead  of  being  represented  in  the  apparel  of 
man,  they  would  have  luxuriated  in  trains,  low- 
necked  dresses,  laces  and  back-hair. 

Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  each  nation 
gives  to  its  god  its  peculiar  characteristics,  and 
that  every  individual  gives  to  his  god  his  personal 
peculiarities. 

Man  has  no  ideas,  and  can  have  none,  except 
those  suggested  by  his  surroundings.  He  cannot 
conceive  of  anything  utterly  unlike  what  he  has 
seen  or  felt.  He  can  exaggerate,  diminish,  combine, 
separate,  deform,  beautify,  improve,  multiply  and 
compare  what  he  sees,  what  he  feels,  what  he  hears, 
and  all  of  which  he  takes  cognizance  through  the 
medium  of  the  senses  ;  but  he  cannot  create.  Hav- 
ing seen  exhibitions  of  power,  he  can  say,  omnipo- 
tent. Having  lived,  he  can  say,  immortality.  Know- 
ing something  of  time,  he  can  say,  eternity.  Con- 
ceiving something  of  intelligence,  he  can  say,  God 
Having  seen  exhibitions  of  malice,  he  can  say, 
devil.     A  few  gleams  of  happiness  having  fallen 


THE   GODS.  27 

athwart  the  gloom  of  his  life,  he  can  say,  heaven. 
Pain,  in  its  numberless  forms,  having  been  expe- 
rienced, he  can  say,  hell.  Yet  all  these  ideas  have 
a  foundation  in  fact,  and  only  a  foundation.  The 
superstructure  has  been  reared  by  exaggerating, 
diminishing,  combining,  separating,  deforming,  beau- 
tifying, improving  or  multiplying  realities,  so  that 
the  edifice  or  fabric  is  but  the  incongruous  grouping 
of  what  man  has  perceived  through  the  medium  of 
the  senses.  It  is  as  though  we  should  give  to  a 
lion  the  wings  of  an  eagle,  the  hoofs  of  a  bison,  the 
tail  of  a  horse,  the  pouch  of  a  kangaroo,  and  the 
trunk  of  an  elephant.  We  have  in  imagination 
created  an  impossible  monster.  And  yet  the 
various  parts  of  this  monster  really  exist.  So  it 
is  with  all  the  gods  that  man  has  made. 

Beyond  nature  man  cannot  go  even  in  thought 
—  above  nature  he  cannot  rise  —  below  nature 
he  cannot  fall. 

Man,  in  his  ignorance,  supposed  that  all  phe- 
nomena were  produced  by  some  intelligent  powers, 
and  with  direct  reference  to  him.  To  preserve 
friendly  relations  with  these  powers  was,  and  still 
is,  the  object  of  all  religions.  Man  knelt  through 
fear  and  to  implore  assistance,  or  through  grati- 


28  THE   GODS. 

tude  for  some  favor  which  he  supposed  had  been 
rendered.  He  endeavored  by  supplication  to  ap- 
pease some  being  who,  for  some  reason,  had,  as  he 
beHeved,  become  enraged.  The  Hghtning  and  thun- 
der terrified  him.  In  the  presence  of  the  volcano 
he  sank  upon  his  knees.  The  great  forests  filled 
with  wild  and  ferocious  beasts,  the  monstrous  ser- 
pents crawling  in  mysterious  depths,  the  boundless 
sea,  the  flaming  comets,  the  sinister  eclipses,  the 
awful  calmness  of  the  stars,  and,  more  than  all,  the 
perpetual  presence  of  death,  convinced  him  that 
he  was  the  sport  and  prey  of  unseen  and  malig- 
nant powers.  The  strange  and  frightful  diseases 
to  which  he  was  subject,  the  freezings  and  burn- 
ings of  fever,  the  contortions  of  epilepsy,  the  sud- 
den palsies,  the  darkness  of  night,  and  the  wild, 
terrible  and  fantastic  dreams  that  filled  his  brain, 
satisfied  him  that  he  was  haunted  and  pursued 
by  countless  spirits  of  evil.  For  some  reason  he 
supposed  that  these  spirits  differed  in  power — 
that  they  were  not  all  alike  malevolent — that  the 
higher  controlled  the  lower,  and  that  his  very  ex- 
istence depended  upon  gaining  the  assistance  of 
the  more  powerful.  For  this  purpose  he  resorted 
to  prayer,  to  flattery,  to  worship  and  tp  sacrifice. 


THE  GODS.  '  29 

These  ideas  appear  to  have  been  almost  universal 
in  savage  man. 

For  ages  all  nations  supposed  that  the  sick 
and  insane  were  possessed  by  evil  spirits.  For 
thousands  of  years  the  practice  of  medicine  con- 
sisted in  frightening  these  spirits  away.  Usually 
the  priests  would  make  the  loudest  and  most  dis- 
cordant noises  possible.  They  would  blow  horns, 
beat  upon  rude  drums,  clash  cymbals,  and  in  the 
meantime  utter  the  most  unearthly  yells.  If  the 
noise-remedy  failed,  they  would  implore  the  aid 
of  some  more  powerful  spirit. 

To  pacify  these  spirits  was  considered  of  infi- 
nite importance.  The  poor  barbarian,  knowing 
that  men  could  be  softened  by  gifts,  gave  to  these 
spirits  that  which  to  him  seemed  of  the  most 
value.  With  bursting  heart  he  would  offer  the 
blood  of  his  dearest  child.  It  was  impossible  for 
him  to  conceive  of  a  god  utterly  unlike  himself, 
and  he  naturally  supposed  that  these  powers  of 
the  air  would  be  affected  a  little  at  the  sight  of 
so  great  and  so  deep  a  sorrow.  It  was  with  the 
barbarian  then  as  with  the  civilized  now  —  one 
class  lived  upon  and  made  merchandise  of  the 
fears  of  another.    Certain  persons  took  it  upon 


30  T^E  GODS. 

themselves  to  appease  the  gods,  and  to  instruct 
the  people  in  their  duties  to  these  unseen  powers. 
This  was  the  origin  of  the  priesthood.  The  priest 
pretended  to  stand  between  the  wrath  of  the  gods 
and  the  helplessness  of  man.  He  was  man's  at- 
torney at  the  court  of  heaven.  He  carried  to 
the  invisible  world  a  flag  of  truce,  a  protest  and 
a  request.  He  came  back  with  a  command,  with 
authority  and  with  power.  Man  fell  upon  his 
knees  before  his  own  servant,  and  the  priest, 
taking  advantage  of  the  awe  inspired  by  his  sup- 
posed influence  with  the  gods,  made  of  his  fellow- 
man  a  cringing  hypocrite  and  slave.  Even  Christ, 
the  supposed  son  of  God,  taught  that  persons 
were  possessed  of  evil  spirits,  and  frequently,  ac- 
cording to  the  account,  gave  proof  of  his  divine 
origin  and  mission  by  frightening  droves  of  devils 
out  of  his  unfortunate  countrymen.  Casting  out 
devils  was  his  principal  employment,  and  the  devils 
thus  banished  generally  took  occasion  to  acknowl- 
edge him  as  the  true  Messiah ;  which  was  not 
only  very  kind  of  them,  but  quite  fortunate  for  him. 
The  religious  people  have  always  regarded  the 
testimony  of  these  devils  as  perfectly  conclusive, 
and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  quote  the 


THE  GODS.  31 

words  of  these  imps  of  darkness  with  great  sat- 
isfaction. 

The  fact  that  Christ  could  withstand  the  temp- 
tations of  the  devil  was  considered  as  conclusive 
evidence  that  he  was  assisted  by  some  god,  or  at 
least  by  some  being  superior  to  man.  St  Mat- 
thew gives  an  account  of  an  attempt  made  by 
the  devil  to  tempt  the  supposed  son  of  God;  and 
it  has  always  excited  the  wonder  of  Christians 
that  the  temptation  was  so  nobly  and  heroically 
withstood.  The  account  to  which  I  refer  is  as 
follows : 

"Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  spirit  into  the 
wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil.  And  when 
the  tempter  came  to  him,  he  said:  'If  thou  be 
the  son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be 
made  bread.'  But  he  answered,  and  said:  'It  is 
written :  man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but 
by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God.'  Then  the  devil  taketh  him  up  into  the 
holy  city  and  setteth  him  upon  a  pinnacle  of  the 
temple  and  saith  unto  him:  'If  thou  be  the  son 
of  God,  cast  thyself  down;  for  it  is  written,  He 
shall  give  his  angels  charge  concerning  thee,  lest 
at  any  time  thou   shalt  dash  thy  foot   against  a 


32  THE  GODS. 

stone.'  Jesus  said  unto  him  :  '  It  is  written  again, 
thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God.'  Again 
the  devil  taketh  him  up  into  an  exceeding  high 
mountain  and  sheweth  him  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  and  the  glory  of  them,  and  saith  unto 
him :  '  All  these  will  I  give  thee  if  thou  wilt  fall 
down  and  worship  me.' " 

The  Christians  now  claim  that  Jesus  was  God. 
If  he  was  God,  of  course  the  devil  knew  that  fact, 
and  yet,  according  to  this  account,  the  devil  took 
the  omnipotent  God  and  placed  him  upon  a  pin- 
nacle of  the  temple,  and  endeavored  to  induce 
him  to  dash  himself  against  the  earth.  Failing  in 
that,  he  took  the  creator,  owner  and  governor  of 
the  universe  up  into  an  exceeding  high  mountain, 
and  offered  him  this  world  —  this  grain  of  sand  — 
if  he,  the  God  of  all  the  worlds,  would  fall  down 
and  worship  him,  a  poor  devil,  without  even  a 
tax  title  to  one  foot  of  dirt !  Is  it  possible  the 
devil  was  such  an  idiot  ?  Should  any  great  credit 
be  given  to  this  deity  for  not  being  caught  with 
such  chaff?  Think  of  it !  The  devil  —  the  prince 
of  sharpers  —  the  king  of  cunning  —  the  master 
of  finesse,  trying  to  bribe  God  with  a  grain  of 
sand  that  belonged  to  God ! 


THE  GODS.  33 

Is  there  in  all  the  religious  literature  of  the 
world   anything   more    grossly  absurd    than  this  ? 

These  devils,  according  to  the  Bible,  were  of 
various  kinds  —  some  could  speak  and  hear,  others 
were  deaf  and  dumb.  All  could  not  be  cast  out 
in  the  same  way.  The  deaf  and  dumb  spirits 
were  quite  difficult  to  deal  with.  St.  Mark  tells 
of  a  gentleman  who  brought  his  son  to  Christ. 
The  boy,  it  seems,  was  possessed  of  a  dumb 
spirit,  over  which  the  disciples  had  no  control. 
"  Jesus  said  unto  the  spirit :  '  Thou  dumb  and 
deaf  spirit,  I  charge  thee  come  out  of  him,  and 
enter  no  more  into  him.' "  Whereupon,  the 
deaf  spirit  (having  heard  what  was  said)  cried 
out  (being  dumb)  and  immediately  vacated  the 
premises.  The  ease  with  which  Christ  controlled 
this  deaf  and  dumb  spirit  excited  the  wonder  of 
his  disciples,  and  they  asked  him  privately  why 
they  could  not  cast  that  spirit  out.  To  whom  he 
replied :  "  This  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing 
but  prayer  and  fasting."  Is  there  a  Christian  in 
the  whole  world  who  would  believe  such  a  story 
if  found  in  any  other  book  ?  The  trouble  is,  these 
pious  people  shut  up  their  reason,  and  then  open 
their  Bible. 


34  THE  GODS. 

In  the  olden  times  the  existence  of  devils  was 
universally  admitted.  The  people  had  no  doubt 
upon  that  subject,  and  from  such  belief  it  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course,  that  a  person,  in  order  to 
vanquish  these  devils,  had  either  to  be  a  god,  or 
to  be  assisted  by  one.  All  founders  of  religions 
have  established  their  claims  to  divine  origin  by 
controlling  evil  spirits  and  suspending  the  laws 
of  nature.  Casting  out  devils  was  a  certificate  of 
divinity.  A  prophet,  unable  to  cope  with  the 
powers  of  darkness  was  regarded  with  contempt 
The  utterance  of  the  highest  and  noblest  senti- 
ments, the  most  blameless  and  holy  life,  com- 
manded but  little  respect,  unless  accompanied  by 
power  to  work  miracles  and  command  spirits. 

This  belief  in  good  and  evil  powers  had  its 
origin  in  the  fact  that  man  was  surrounded  by 
what  he  was  pleased  to  call  good  and  evil  phe- 
nomena. Phenomena  affecting  man  pleasantly 
were  ascribed  to  good  spirits,  while  those  affect- 
ing him  unpleasantly  or  injuriously,  were  ascribed 
to  evil  spirits.  It  being  admitted  that  all  phe- 
nomena were  produced  by  spirits,  the  spirits  were 
divided  according  to  the  phenomena,  and  the  phe- 
nomena were  good  or  bad  as  they  affected  man. 


THE  GODS.  35 

Good  spirits  were  supposed  to  be  the  authors  of 
good  phenomena,  and  evil  spirits  of  the  evil — so 
that  the  idea  of  a  devil  has  been  as  universal  as 
the  idea  of  a  god. 

Many  writers  maintain  that  an  idea  to  become 
universal  must  be  true ;  that  all  universal  ideas 
are  innate,  and  that  innate  ideas  cannot  be  false. 
If  the  fact  that  an  idea  has  been  universal  proves 
that  it  is  innate,  and  if  the  fact  that  an  idea  is 
innate  proves  that  it  is  correct,  then  the  believers 
in  innate  ideas  must  admit  that  the  evidence  of 
a  god  superior  to  nature,  and  of  a  devil  superior 
to  nature,  is  exactly  the  same,  and  that  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  devil  must  be  as  self-evident  as 
the  existence  of  such  a  god.  The  truth  is,  a  god 
was  inferred  from  good,  and  a  devil  from  bad, 
phenomena.  And  it  is  just  as  natural  and  logical 
to  suppose  that  a  devil  would  cause  happiness  as 
to  suppose  that  a  god  would  produce  misery. 
Consequently,  if  an  intelligence,  infinite  and  su- 
preme, is  the  immediate  author  of  all  phenomena, 
it  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  such  intelli- 
gence is  the  friend  or  enemy  of  man.  If  phe- 
nomena were  all  good,  we  might  say  they  were 
all  produced  by  a  perfectly  beneficent  being.     If 


36  THE  GODS. 

they  were  all  bad,  we  might  say  they  were  pro- 
duced  by  a  perfectly  malevolent  power;  but,  as 
phenomena  are,  as  they  affect  man,  both  good 
and  bad,  they  must  be  produced  by  different  and 
antagonistic  spirits;  by  one  who  is  sometimes 
actuated  by  kindness,  and  sometimes  by  malice ; 
or  all  must  be  produced  of  necessity,  and  without 
reference  to  their  consequences  upon  man.. 

The  foolish  doctrine  that  all  phenomena  can 
be  traced  to  the  interference  of  good  and  evil 
spirits,  has  been,  and  still  is,  almost  universal. 
That  most  people  still  believe  in  some  spirit  that 
can  change  the  natural  order  of  events,  is  proven 
by  the  fact  that  nearly  all  resort  to  prayer.  Thou- 
sands, at  this  very  moment,  are  probably  imploring 
some  supposed  power  to  interfere  in  their  behalf. 
Some  want  health  restored;  some  ask  that  the 
loved  and  absent  be  watched  over  and  protected, 
some  pray  for  riches,  some  for  rain,  some  want 
diseases  stayed,  some  vainly  ask  for  food,  some 
ask  for  revivals,  a  few  ask  for  more  wisdom,  and 
now  and  then  one  tells  the  Lord  to  do  as  he 
may  think  best.  Thousands  ask  to  be  protected 
from  the  devil;  some,  like  David,  pray  for  re- 
venge, and  some    implore  even    God,  not  to    lead 


THE  GODS.  37 

them  into  temptation.  All  these  prayers  rest  upon, 
and  are  produced  by,  the  idea  that  some  powei 
not  only  can,  but  probably  will,  change  the  ordei 
of  the  universe.  This  belief  has  been  among  the 
great  majority  of  tribes  and  nations.  All  sacred 
books  are  filled  with  the  accounts  of  such  inter-, 
ferences,  and  our  own  Bible  is  no  exception  to 
this  rule. 

If  we  believe  in  a  power  superior  to  nature, 
it  is  perfectly  natural  to  suppose  that  such  power 
can  and  will  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  this  world. 
If  there  is  no  interference,  of  what  practical  use 
can  such  power  be.'*  The  Scriptures  give  us  the 
most  wonderful  accounts  of  divine  interference : 
Animals  talk  like  men ;  springs  gurgle  from  dry 
bones  ;  the  sun  and  moon  stop  in  the  heavens  in 
order  that  General  Joshua  may  have  more  time 
to  murder;  the  shadow  on  a  dial  goes  back  ten 
degrees  to  convince  a  petty  king  of  a  barbarous 
people  that  he  is  not  going  to  die  of  a  boil;  fire 
refuses  to  burn ;  water  positively  declines  to  seek 
its  level,  but  stands  up  like  a  wall ;  grains  of 
sand  become  lice ;  common  walking-sticks,  to  grat- 
ify a  mere  freak,  twist  themselves  into  serpents, 
and  then  swallow  each  other  by  wav  of  exercise  *. 


38  THE  GODS. 

murmuring  streams,  laughing  at  the  attraction  of 
gravitation,  run  up  hill  for  years,  following  wan- 
dering tribes  from  a  pure  love  of  frolic ;  prophecy 
becomes  altogether  easier  than  history ;  the  sons 
of  God  become  enamored  of  the  world  s  girls ; 
women  are  changed  into  salt  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  a  great  event  fresh  in  the  minds  of  men ; 
an  excellent  article  of  brimstone  is  imported  from 
heaven  free  of  duty ;  clothes  refuse  to  wear  out 
for  forty  years ;  birds  keep  restaurants  and  feed 
wandering  prophets  free  of  expense ;  bears  tear 
children  in  pieces  for  laughing  at  old  men  with- 
out wigs ;  muscular  development  depends  upon 
the  length  of  one's  hair ;  dead  people  come  to  life, 
simply  to  get  a  joke  on  their  enemies  and  heirs ; 
witches  and  wizards  converse  freely  with  the  souls 
of  the  departed,  and  God  himself  becomes  a 
stone-cutter  and  engraver,  after  having  been  a 
tailor  and  dressmaker. 

The  veil  between  heaven  and  earth  was  al- 
ways rent  or  lifted.  The  shadows  of  this  world, 
the  radiance  of  heaven,  and  the  glare  of  hell 
mixed  and  mingled  until  man  became  uncertain 
as  to  which  country  he  really  inhabited.  Man 
dwelt  in  an  unreal  world.     He  mistook  his  ideas, 


THE  GODS.  39 

his  dreams,  for  real  things.  His  fears  became 
terrible  and  malicious  monsters.  He  lived  in  the 
midst  of  furies  and  fairies,  nymphs  and  naiads, 
goblins  and  ghosts,  witches  and  wizards,  sprites 
and  spooks,  deities  and  devils.  The  obscure  and 
gloomy  depths  were  filled  with  claw  and  wing  — 
with  beak  and  hoof — with  leering  looks  and 
sneering  mouths  —  with  the   malice  of  deformity 

—  with  the  cunning  of  hatred,  and  with  all  the 
slimy  forms  that  fear  can  draw  and  paint  upon 
the  shadowy  canvas  of  the  dark. 

It  is  enough  to  make  one  almost  insane  with 
pity  to  think  what  man  in  the  long  night  has  suf- 
fered ;  of  the  tortures  he  has  endured,  sur- 
rounded, as  he  supposed,  by  malignant  powers 
and  clutched  by  the  fierce  phantoms  of  the  air. 
No  wonder  that  he  fell   upon  his  trembling  knees 

—  that  he  built  altars  and  reddened  them  even 
with  his  own  blood.  No  wonder  that  he  implored 
ignorant  priests  and  impudent  magicians  for  aid 
No  wonder  that  he  crawled  groveling  in  the  dust 
to  the  temple's  door,  and  there,  in  the  insanity  of 
despair,  besought  the  deaf  gods  to  hear  his  bitter 
cry  of  agony  and  fear. 

The  savage  as  he  emerges  from  a  state  of  bar- 


40  THE  GODS. 

barism,  gradually  loses  faith  in  his  idols  of  wood 
and  stone,  and  in  their  place  puts  a  multitude  of 
spirits.  As  he  advances  in  knowledge,  he  gene- 
rally discards  the  petty  spirits,  and  in  their  stead 
believes  in  one,  whom  he  supposes  to  be  infinite 
and  supreme.  Supposing  this  great  spirit  to  be 
superior  to  nature,  he  offers  worship  or  flattery  in 
exchange  for  assistance.  At  last,  finding  that  he 
obtains  no  aid  from  this  supposed  deity  —  finding 
that  every  search  after  the  absolute  must  of  neces- 
sity end  in  failure  —  finding  that  man  cannot  by 
any  possibility  conceive  of  the  conditionless  — 
he  begins  to  investigate  the  facts  by  which  he  is 
surrounded,  and  to  depend  upon  himself. 

The  people  are  beginning  to  think,  to  reason 
and  to  investigate.  Slowly,  painfully,  but  surely, 
the  gods  are  being  driven  from  the  earth.  Only 
upon  rare  occasions  are  they,  even  by  the  most 
religious,  supposed  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  In  most  matters  we  are  at  last  supposed 
to  .  be  free.  Since  the  invention  of  steamships 
and  railways,  so  that  the  products  of  all  countries 
can  be  easily  interchanged,  the  gods  have  quit  the 
business  of  producing  famine.  Now  and  then 
they   kill    a    child   because    it   is    idolized   by    its 


THE  GODS.  41 

parents.  As  a  rule  they  have  given  up  causing 
accidents  on  railroads,  exploding  boilers,  and 
bursting  kerosene  lamps.  Cholera,  yellow  fever, 
and  small-pox  are  still  considered  heavenly 
weapons ;  but  measles,  itch  and  ague  are  now 
attributed  to  natural  causes.  As  a  general  thing, 
the  gods  have  stopped  drowning  children,  except 
as  a  punishment  for  violating  the  Sabbath.  They 
still  pay  some  attention  to  the  affairs  of  kings, 
men  of  genius  and  persons  of  great  wealth  ;  but 
ordinary  people  are  left  to  shirk  for  themselves 
as  best  they  may.  In  wars  between  great  na- 
tions, the  gods  still  interfere  ;  but  in  prize  fights, 
the  best  man  with  an  honest  referee,  is  almost 
sure  to  win. 

The  church  cannot  abandon  the  idea  of  special 
providence.  To  give  up  that  doctrine  is  to  give 
up  all.  The  church  must  insist  that  prayer  is 
answered  —  that  some  power  superior  to  nature 
hears  and  grants  the  request  of  the  sincere  and 
humble  Christian,  and  that  this  same  power  in 
some  mysterious  way  provides  for  all. 

A  devout  clergyman  sought  every  opportunity 
to  impress  upon  the  mind  of  his  son  the  fact,  that 
God  takes  care  of  all  his  creatures ;  that  the  fall- 


42  •    THE   GODS. 

ing  sparrow  attracts  his  attention,  and  that  his 
loving  kindness  is  over  all  his  works.  Happening, 
one  day,  to  see  a  crane  wading  in  quest  of  food, 
the  good  man  pointed  out  to  his  son  the  perfect 
adaptation  of  the  crane  to  get  his  living  in  that 
manner.  "  See,"  said  he,  "  how  his  legs  are  formed 
for  wading !  What  a  long  slender  bill  he  has  \ 
Observe  how  nicely  he  folds  his  feet  when  putting 
them  in  or  drawing  them  out  of  the  water !  He 
does  not  cause  the  slightest  ripple.  He  is  thus 
enabled  to  approach  the  fish  without  giving  them 
any  notice  of  his  arrival."  "  My  son,"  said  he, 
"  it  is  impossible  to  look  at  that  bird  without 
recognizing  the  design,  as  well  as  the  goodness 
of  God,  in  thus  providing  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence." "  Yes,"  replied  the  boy,  "  I  think  I  see 
the  goodness  of  God,  at  least  so  far  as  the 
crane  is  concerned ;  but  after  all,  father,  don't 
you  think  the  arrangement  a  little  tough  on  the 
^fish?" 

Even  the  advanced  religionist,  although  dis- 
believing in  any  great  amount  of  interference 
by  the  gods  in  this  age  of  the  world,  still 
thinks,  that  in  the  beginning,  some  god  made 
the  laws  governing   the   universe.      He   believes 


THE  GODS.  43 

that  in  consequence  of  these  laws  a  man  can 
lift  a  greater  weight  with,  than  without,  a  lever ; 
that  this  god  so  made  matter,  and  so  estab- 
lished the  order  of  things,  that  two  bodies  can- 
not occupy  the  same  space  at  the  same  time ; 
so  that  a  body  once  put  in  motion  will  keep 
moving  until  it  is  stopped ;  so  that  it  is  a 
greater  distance  around,  than  across  a  circle ; 
so  that  a  perfect  square  has  four  equal  sides, 
instead  of  five  or  seven.  He  insists  that  it  took 
a  direct  interposition  of  Providence  to  make  the 
whole  greater  than  a  part,  and  that  had  it  not 
been  for  this  power  superior  to  nature,  twice 
one  might  have  been  more  than  twice  two,  and 
sticks  and  strings  might  have  had  only  one  end 
apiece.  Like  the  old  Scotch  divine,  he  thanks 
God  that  Sunday  comes  at  the  end  instead  of 
in  the  middle  of  the  week,  and  that  death 
comes  at  the  close  instead  of  at  the  commence- 
ment of  life,  thereby  giving  us  time  to  prepare 
for  that  holy  day  and  that  most  solemn  event 
These  religious  people  see  nothing  but  design 
everywhere,  and  personal,  intelligent  interference 
in  everything.  They  insist  that  the  universe 
has    been    created,    and     that    the    adaptation    of 


44  THE  GODS, 

means  to  ends  is  perfectly  apparent.  They 
point  us  to  the  sunshine,  to  the  flowers,  to  the 
April  rain,  and  to  all  there  is  of  beauty  and  of 
use  in  the  world.  Did  it  ever  occur  to  them 
that  a  cancer  is  as  beautiful  in  its  development 
as  is  the  reddest  rose.?  That  what  they  are 
pleased  to  call  the  adaptation  of  means  to  ends, 
is  as  apparent  in  the  cancer  as  in  the  April 
rain?  How  beautiful  the  process  of  digestion! 
By  what  ingenious  methods  the  blood  is  poi- 
soned so  that  the  cancer  shall  have  food  !  By 
what  wonderful  contrivances  the  entire  system 
of  man  is  made  to  pay  tribute  to  this  divine 
and  charming  cancer !  See  by  what  admirable 
instrumentalities  it  feeds  itself  from  the  surround- 
ing quivering,  dainty  flesh  !  See  how  it  gradu- 
ally but  surely  expands  and  grows !  By  what 
marvelous  mechanism  it  is  supplied  with  long 
and  slender  roots  that  reach  out  to  the  most 
secret  nerves  of  pain  for  sustenance  and  life ! 
What  beautiful  colors  it  presents  !  Seen  through 
the  microscope  it  is  a  miracle  of  order  and 
beauty.  All  the  ingenuity  of  man  cannot  stop 
its  growth.  Think  of  the  amount  of  thought  it 
must  have    required  to    invent    a    way    by    which 


THE  GODS.  45 

the  life  of  one  man  might  be  given  to  produce 
one  cancer?  Is  it  possible  to  look  upon  it  and 
doubt  that  there  is  design  in  the  universe,  and 
that  the  inventor  of  this  wonderful  cancer  must 
be  infinitely  powerful,  ingenious  and  good  ? 

We  are  told  that  the  universe  was  designed 
and  created,  and  that  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that 
matter  has  existed  from  eternity,  but  that  it  is 
perfectly  self-evident  that  a  god  has. 

If  a  god  created  the  universe,  then,  there  must 
have  been  a  time  when  he  commenced  to  create. 
Back  of  that  time  there  must  have  been  an  eter- 
nity, during  which  there  had  existed  nothing — 
absolutely  nothing  —  except  this  supposed  god. 
According  to  this  theory,  this  god  spent  an  eter- 
nity, so  to  speak,  in  an  infinite  vacuum,  and  in 
perfect  idleness. 

Admitting  that  a  god  did  create  the  universe, 
the  question  then  arises,  of  what  did  he  create  it  ? 
It  certainly  was  not  made  of  nothing.  Nothing, 
considered  in  the  light  of  a  raw  material,  is  a  most 
decided  failure.  It  follows,  then,  that  the  god 
must  have  made  the  universe  out  of  himself,  he 
being  the  only  existence.  The  universe  is  mate- 
rial, and  if  it  was   made  of  god,  the  god  must  have 


46  THE  GODS. 

been  material.  With  this  very  thought  in  his 
mind,  Anaximander  of  Miletus  said :  "  Creation 
is  the  decomposition  of  the  infinite." 

It  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  earth  would 
fall  to  the  sun,  only  for  the  fact,  that  it  is  attract- 
ed by  other  worlds,  and  those  worlds  must  be 
attracted  by  other  worlds  still  beyond  them,  and 
so  on,  without  end.  This  proves  the  material 
universe  to  be  infinite.  If  an  infinite  universe 
has  been  made  out  of  an  infinite  god,  how  much 
of  the  god  is  left.'* 

The  idea  of  a  creative  deity  is  gradually  being 
abandoned,  and  nearly  all  truly  scientific  minds 
admit  that  matter  must  have  existed  from  eternity. 
It  is  indestructible,  and  the  indestructible  cannot 
be  created.  It  is  the  crowning  glory  of  our  cen- 
tury to  have  demonstrated  the  indestructibility 
and  the  eternal  persistence  of  force.  Neither 
matter  nor  force  can  be  increased  nor  diminished. 
Force  cannot  exist  apart  from  matter.  Matter 
exists  only  in  connection  with  force,  and  conse- 
quently, a  force  apart  from  matter,  and  superior 
to  nature,  is  a  demonstrated  impossibility. 

Force,  then,  must  have  also  existed  from  eter- 
nity, and    could   not   have  been  created.     Matter 


THE  GODS.  47 

in  its  countless  forms,  from  dead  earth  to  the  eyes 
of  those  we  love,  and  force,  in  all  its  manifesta- 
tions, from  simple  motion  to  the  grandest  thought, 
deny  creation  and  defy  control 

Thought  is  a  form  of  force.  We  walk  with 
the  same  force  with  which  we  think.  Man  is  an 
organism,  that  changes  several  forms  of  force  into 
thought-force.  Man  is  a  machine  into  which  we 
put  what  we  call  food,  and  produce  what  we  call 
thought.  Think  of  that  wonderful  chemistry  by 
which  bread  was  changed  into  the  divine  tragedy 
of  Hamlet ! 

A  god  must  not  only  be  material,  but  he  must 
be  an  organism,  capable  of  changing  other  forms 
of  force  into  thought-force.  This  is  what  we 
call  eating.  Therefore,  if  the  god  thinks,  he  must 
eat,  that  is  to  say,  he  must  of  necessity  have 
some  means  of  supplying  the  force  with  which  to 
think.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  being 
who  can  eternally  impart  force  to  matter,  and  yet 
have  no  means  of  supplying  the  force  thus  im- 
parted. 

If  neither  matter  nor  force  were  created,  what 
evidence  have  we,  then,  of  the  existence  of  a 
power   superior   to   nature  ?      The   theologian  will 


48  THE  GODS. 

probably  reply,  "  We  have  law  and  order,  cause 
and  effect,  and  beside  all  this,  matter  could  not 
have  put  itself  in  motion." 

Suppose,  for   the  sake  of   the  argument,  that 
there   is   no    being    superior   to  nature,  and  that 
matter    and    force    have    existed    from    eternity. 
Now,    suppose     that     two     atoms     should     come 
together,  would  there  be  an  effect  ?     Yes.     Sup- 
pose   they   came    in     exactly   opposite    directions 
with   equal  force,  they  would  be  stopped,  to   say 
the  least.     This  would  be  an  effect.     If  this  is  so, 
then   you   have  matter,  force  and  effect  without  a 
being  superior  to   nature.     Now,  suppose  that  two 
other  atoms,  just  like  the  first   two,  should  come 
together  under  precisely  the  same  circumstances, 
would  not  the  effect  be  exactly  the  same?     Yes. 
Like   causes,  producing    like   effects,  is    what   we 
mean  by  law  and  order.     Then  we    have  matter, 
force,  effect,  law  and  order  without  a  being  supe- 
rior to  nature.      Now,  we  know,  that  every  effect . 
must  also  be  a  cause,  and  that  every  cause  must 
be   an    effect.      The   atoms  coming  together   did 
produce  an    effect,  and   as  every  effect  must  also 
be  a  cause,  the  effect   produced    by   the   collision 
of  the  atoms,  must  as  to  something  else  have  been 


THE  GODS.  4& 

a  cause.  Then  we  have  matter,  force,  law,  order, 
cause  and  effect  without  a  being  superior  to 
nature.  Nothing  is  left  for  the  supernatural  but 
empty  space.  His  throne  is  a  void,  and  his 
boasted  realm  is  without  matter,  without  force, 
without  law,  without  cause,  and  without  effect 

But  what  put  all  this  matter  in  motion  ?  If 
matter  and  force  have  existed  from  eternity,  then 
matter  must  have  always  been  in  motion.  There 
can  be  no  force  without  motion.  Force  is  for- 
ever active,  and  there  is,  and  there  can  be  no 
cessation.  If,  therefore,  matter  and  force  have  ex- 
isted from  eternity,  so  has  motion.  In  the  whole 
universe  there  is  not  even  one  atom  in  a  state 
of  rest 

A  deity  outside  of  nature  exists  in  nothing, 
and  is  nothing.  Nature  embraces  with  infinite 
arms  all  matter  and  all  force.  That  which  is 
beyond  her  grasp  is  destitute  of  both,  and  can 
hardly  be  worth  the  worship  and  adoration  even 
of  a  man. 

There    is    but    one  way  to   demonstrate  the, 
existence  of  a  power  independent  of  and  superior 
to  nature,  and  that  is  by  breaking,  if  only  for  one 
moment,  the  continuity  of  cause  and  effect     Pluck 


60  THE  GODS. 

from  the  endless  chain  of  existence  one  little 
link ;  stop  for  one  instant  the  grand  procession, 
and  you  have  shown  beyond  all  contradiction  that 
nature  has  a  master.  Change  the  fact,  just  for 
one  second,  that  matter  attracts  matter,  and  a 
god  appears. 

The  rudest  savage  has  always  known  this  fact, 
and  for  that  reason  always  demanded  the  evi- 
dence of  miracle.  The  founder  of  a  religion 
must  be  able  to  turn  water  into  wine  —  cure  with 
a  word  the  blind  and  lame,  and  raise  with  a  sim- 
ple touch  the  dead  to  life.  It  was  necessary  for 
him  to  demonstrate  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  bar- 
barian disciple,  that  he  was  superior  to  nature. 
In  times  of  ignorance  this  was  easy  to  do.  The 
credulity  of  the  savage  was  almost  boundless. 
To  him  the  marvelous  was  the  beautiful,  the  mys- 
terious was  the  sublime.  Consequently,  every 
religion  has  for  its  foundation  a  miracle  —  that 
is  to  say,  a  violation  of  nature  —  that  is  to  say, 
a  falsehood. 

No  one,  in  the  world's  whole  history,  ever 
attempted  to  substantiate  a  truth  by  a  miracle. 
Truth  scorns  the  assistance  of  miracle.  Nothing 
but    falsehood    ever    attested    itself  by    signs    and 


THE  GODS.  51 

wonders.  No  miracle  ever  was  performed,  and 
no  sane  man  ever  thought  he  had  performed  one, 
and  until  one  is  performed,  there  can  be  no  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  of  any  power  superior  to, 
and  independent  of  nature. 

The  church  wishes  us  to  believe.  Let  the 
church,  or  one  of  its  intellectual  saints,  perform 
a  miracle,  and  we  will  believe.  We  are  told  that 
nature  has  a  superior.  Let  this  superior,  for 
one  single  instant,  control  nature,  and  we  will 
admit  the  truth  of  your  assertions. 

We  have  heard  talk  enough.  We  have  list- 
ened to  all  the  drowsy,  idealess,  vapid  sermons 
that  we  wish  to  hear.  We  have  read  your  Bible 
and  the  works  of  your  best  minds.  We  have 
heard  your  prayers,  your  solemn  groans  and  your 
reverential  amens.  All  these  amount  to  less 
than  nothing.  We  want  one  fact.  We  beg  at 
the  doors  of  your  churches  for  just  one  little  fact 
We  pass  our  hats  along  your  pews  and  under 
your  pulpits  and  implore  you  for  just  one  fact 
We  know  all  about  your  mouldy  wonders  and 
your  stale  miracles.  We  want  a  this  year's  fact 
We  ask  only  one.  Give  us  one  fact  for  charity. 
Your   miracles   are    too    ancient      The  witnesses 


62  THE  GODS. 

have  been  dead  for  nearly  two  thousand  years. 
Their  reputation  for  "truth  and  veracity"  in  the 
neighborhood  where  they  resided  is  wholly  un- 
known to  uSo  Give  us  a  new  miracle,  and  sub- 
stantiate it  by  witnesses  who  still  have  the 
cheerful  habit  of  living  in  this  world.  Do  not 
send  us  to  Jericho  to  hear  the  winding  horns, 
nor  put  us  in  the  fire  with  Shadrach,  Meshech,  and 
Abednego.  Do  not  compel  us  to  navigate  the 
sea  with  Captain  Jonah,  nor  dine  with  Mr.  Ezekiel. 
There  is  no  sort  of  use  in  sending  us  fox-hunt- 
ing with  Samson.  We  have  positively  lost  all 
interest  in  that  little  speech  so  eloquently  deliv- 
ered by  Balaam's  inspired  donkeyo  It  is  worse 
than  useless  to  show  us  fishes  with  money  in 
their  mouths,  and  call  our  attention  to  vast 
multitudes  stuffing  themselves  with  five  crackers 
and  two  sardines.  We  demand  a  new  miracle, 
and  we  demand  it  now.  Let  the  church  fur- 
nish at  least  one,  or  forever  after  hold  her 
peace. 

In  the  olden  time,  the  church,  by  violating 
the  order  of  nature,  proved  the  existence  of  her 
God.  At  that  time  miracles  were  performed 
with    the     most    astonishing    ease.      They    be- 


THE  GODS.  53 

came  so  common  that  the  church  ordered  her 
priests    to    desist.       And    now    this    same    church 

—  the  people  having  found  some  Httle  sense  — 
admits,  not  only,  that  she  cannot  perform  a 
miracle,  but   insists    that  the  absence    of  miracle 

—  the  steady,  unbroken  march  of  cause  and 
effect,  proves  the  existence  of  a  power  superior 
to  nature.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  the  in- 
dissoluble chain  of  cause  and  effect  proves  ex- 
actly  the    contrary. 

Sir  William  Hamilton,  one  of  the  pillars  of 
modern  theology,  in  discussing  this  very  subject, 
uses  the  following  language :  "  The  phenomena 
of  matter  taken  by  themselves,  so  far  from  war- 
ranting any  inference  to  the  existence  of  a  god, 
would  on  the  contrary  ground  even  an  argument 
to  his  negation.  The  phenomena  of  the  mate- 
rial world  are  subjected  to  immutable  laws  ;  are 
produced  and  reproduced  in  the  same  invariable 
succession,  and  manifest  only  the  blind  force  of 
a  mechanical  necessity." 

Nature  is  but  an  endless  series  of  efficient 
causes.  She  cannot  create,  but  she  eternally  trans- 
forms. There  was  no  beginning,  and  there  can 
be  no  end. 


H  THE  GODS. 

The  best  minds,  even  in  the  religious  worlds 
admit  that  in  material  nature  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  a  god. 
They  find  their  evidence  in  the  phenomena  of 
intelligence,  and  very  innocently  assert  that  in- 
telligence is  above,  and  in  fact,  opposed  to  nature. 
They  insist  that  man,  at  least,  is  a  special  crea- 
tion ;  that  he  has  somewhere  in  his  brain  a  di- 
vine spark,  a  little  portion  of  the  "  Great  First 
Cause."  They  say  that  matter  cannot  produce 
thought ;  but  that  thought  can  produce  matter. 
They  tell  us  that  man  has  intelligence,  and 
therefore  there  must  be  an  intelligence  greater 
than  his.  Why  not  say,  God  has  intelligence, 
therefore  there  must  be  an  intelligence  greater 
than  his }  So  far  as  we  know,  there  is  no  in- 
telligence apart  from  matter.  We  cannot  con- 
ceive of  thought,  except  as  produced  within  a 
brain. 

The  science,  by  means  of  which  they  demon- 
strate the  existence  of  an  impossible  intelligence, 
and  an  incomprehensible  power  is  called,  meta- 
physics or  theology.  The  theologians  admit 
that  the  phenomena  of  matter  tend,  at  least,  to 
disprove  the  existence  of  any  power  superior  to 


THE  GODS.  55 

nature,  because  in  such  phenomena  we  see  noth- 
ing but  an  endless  chain  of  efficient  causes  — 
nothing  but  the  force  of  a  mechanical  necessity. 
They  therefore  appeal  to  what  they  denominate 
the  phenomena  of  mind  to  establish  this  superior 
power. 

The  trouble  is,  that  in  the  phenomena  of 
mind  we  find  the  same  endless  chain  of  efficient 
causes ;  the  same  mechanical  necessity.  Every 
thought  must  have  had  an  efficient  cause.  Every 
motive,  every  desire,  every  fear,  hope  and  dream 
must  have  been  necessarily  produced.  There  is 
no  room  in  the  mind  of  man  for  providence  or 
chance.  The  facts  and  forces  governing  thought 
are  as  absolute  as  those  governing  the  motions 
of  the  planets.  A  poem  is  produced  by  the 
forces  of  nature,  and  is  as  necessarily  and  nat- 
urally produced  as  mountains  and  seas.  You 
will  seek  in  vain  for  a  thought  in  man's  brain 
without  its  efficient  cause.  Every  mental  opera- 
tion is  the  necessary  result  of  certain  facts  and 
conditions.  Mental  phenomena  are  considered 
more  complicated  than  those  of  matter,  and  con- 
sequently more  mysterious.  Being  more  mys- 
terious,  they  are   considered    better    evidence  of 


66  THE   GODS. 

the  existence  of  a  god.  No  one  infers  a  god 
from  the  simple,  from  the  known,  from  what  is 
understood,  but  from  the  complex,  from  the  un- 
known, and  incomprehensible.  Our  ignorance  is 
God  ;  what  we  know  is   science. 

When  we  abandon  the  doctrine  that  some 
infinite  being  created  matter  and  force,  and  en- 
acted a  code  of  laws  for  their  government,  the 
idea  of  interference  will  be  lost.  The  real  priest 
will  then  be,  not  the  mouth-piece  of  some  pre- 
tended deity,  but  the  interpreter  of  nature. 
From  that  moment  the  church  ceases  to  exist 
The  tapers  will  die  out  upon  the  dusty  altar ; 
the  moths  will  eat  the  fading  velvet  of  pulpit 
and  pew  ;  the  Bible  will  take  its  place  with  the 
Shastras,  Puranas,  Vedas,  Eddas,  Sagas  and 
Korans,  and  the  fetters  of  a  degrading  faith  will 
fall  from  the  minds  of  men. 

"  But,"  says  the  religionist,  "  you  cannot  ex- 
plain everything ;  you  cannot  understand  every- 
thing ;  and  that  which  you  cannot  explain,  that 
which  you  do  not  comprehend,  is  my  God," 

We  are  explaining  more  every  day.  We  are 
understanding  more  every  day ;  consequently 
your  God  is  growing  smaller  every  day. 


THE  GODS.  67 

Nothing  daunted,  the  reHgionist  then  insists 
that  nothing  can  exist  without  a  cause,  except 
cause,  and  that  this  uncaused  cause  is  God. 

To  this  we  again  reply :  Every  caL3e  must 
produce  an  effect,  because  until  it  does  produce 
an  effect,  it  is  not  a  cause.  Every  effect  must 
in  its  turn  become  a  cause.  Therefore,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  there  cannot  be  a  last  cause, 
for  the  reason  that  a  so-called  last  cause  would 
necessarily  produce  an  effect,  and  that  effect  must 
of  necessity  becomes  a  cause.  The  converse  of 
these  propositions  must  be  true.  Every  effect 
must  have  had  a  cause,  and  every  cause  must 
have  been  an  effect.  Therefore  there  could  have 
been  no  first  cause.  A  first  cause  is  just  as  im- 
possible as  a  last  effect. 

Beyond  the  universe  there  is  nothing,  and 
within  the  universe  the  supernatural  does  not  and 
cannot  exist. 

The  moment  these  great  truths  are  understood 
and  admitted,  a  belief  in  general  or  special  prov- 
idence become  impossible.  From  that  instant 
men  will  cease  their  vain  efforts  to  please  an  im- 
aginary being,  and  will  give  their  time  and  atten- 
tion  to    the    affairs    of    this    world.      They   will 


58  THE   GODS. 

abandon  the  idea  of  attaining  any  object  by 
prayer  and  supplication.  The  element  of  uncer- 
tainty will,  in  a  great  measure,  be  removed  from 
the  domain  of  the  future,  and  man,  gathering 
courage  from  a  succession  of  victories  over  the 
obstructions  of  nature,  will  attain  a  serene 
grandeur  unknown  to  the  disciples  of  any  su- 
perstition. The  plans  of  mankind  will  no  longer 
be  interfered  with  by  the  finger  of  a  supposed 
omnipotence,  and  no  one  will  believe  that  nations 
or  individuals  are  protected  or  destroyed  by  any 
deity  whatever.  Science,  freed  from  the  chains 
of  pious  custom  and  evangelical  prejudice,  will, 
within  her  sphere,  be  supreme.  The  mind  will 
investigate  without  reverence,  and  publish  its  con- 
clusions without  fear.  Agassiz  will  no  longer 
hesitate  to  declare  the  Mosaic  cosmogony  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  demonstrated  truths  of  geol- 
ogy, and  will  cease  pretending  any  reverence  for 
the  Jewish  Scriptures.  The  moment  science  suc- 
ceeds in  rendering  the  church  powerless  for  evil, 
the  real  thinkers  will  be  outspoken.  The  little 
flags  of  truce  carried  by  timid  philosophers  will 
disappear,  and  the  cowardly  parley  will  give  place 
to  victory  —  lasting  and  universal. 


THE  GODS.  69 

If  we  admit  that  some  infinite  being  has  con- 
trolled the  destinies  of  persons  and  peoples,  his- 
tory becomes  a  most  cruel  and  bloody  farce.  Age 
after  age,  the  strong  have  trampled  upon  the 
weak ;  the  crafty  and  heartless  have  ensnared  and 
enslaved  the  simple  and  innocent,  and  nowhere, 
in  all  the  annals  of  mankind,  has  any  god  suc- 
cored the  oppressed. 

Man  should  cease  to  expect  aid  from  on  high. 
By  this  time  he  should  know  that  heaven  has 
no  ear  to  hear,  and  no  hand  to  help.  The  pres- 
ent is  the  necessary  child  of  all  the  past  There 
has  been  no  chance,  and  there  can  be  no  inter- 
ference. 

If  abuses  are  destroyed,  man  must  destroy 
them.  If  slaves  are  freed,  man  must  free  them. 
If  new  truths  are  discovered,  man  must  discover 
them.  If  the  naked  are  clothed ;  if  the  hungry 
are  fed ;  if  justice  is  done ;  if  labor  is  rewarded  ; 
if  superstition  is  driven  from  the  mind ;  if  the 
defenceless  are  protected  ard  if  the  right  finally 
triumphs,  all  must  be  the  work  of  man.  The 
grand  victories  of  the  future  must  be  won  by 
man,  and  by  man  alone. 

Nature,  so  far  as  we  can  discern,  without  pas- 


60  THE  GODS. 

sion  and  without  Intention,  forms,  transforms,  and 
retransforms  forever.  She  neither  weeps  nor  re- 
joices. She  produces  man  without  purpose,  and 
obHterates  him  without  regret.  She  knows  no 
distinction  between  the  beneficial  and  the  hurt- 
ful. Poison  and  nutrition,  pain  and  joy,  life  and 
death,  smiles  and  tears  are  alike  to  her.  She  is 
neither  merciful  nor  cruel.  She  cannot  be  flat- 
tered by  worship  nor  melted  by  tears.  She  does 
not  know  even  the  attitude  of  prayer.  She  ap- 
preciates no  difference  between  poison  in  the 
fangs  of  snakes  and  mercy  in  the  hearts  of  men. 
Only  through  man  does  nature  take  cognizance 
of  the  good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful  ;  and,  so 
far  as  we  know,  man  is  the  highest  intelligence. 
And  yet  man  continues  to  believe  that  there 
is  some  power  independent  of  and  superior  to 
nature,  and  still  endeavors,  by  form,  ceremony, 
supplication,  hypocrisy  and  sacrifice,  to  obtain  its 
aid.  His  best  energies  have  been  wasted  in  the 
service  of  this  phantom.  The  horrors  of  witch- 
craft were  all  born  of  an  ignorant  belief  in  the 
existence  of  a  totally  depraved  being  superior  to 
nature,  acting  in  perfect  independence  of  her  laws  ; 
and    all    religious    superstition    has    had    for    its 


THE  GODS.  «1 

basis  a  belief  in  at  least  two  beings,  one  good 
and  the  other  bad,  both  of  whom  could  arbi- 
trarily change  the  order  of  the  universe.  The 
history  of  religion  is  simply  the  story  of  man's 
efforts  in  all  ages  to  avoid  one  of  these  powers, 
and  to  pacify  the  other.  Both  powers  have 
inspired  little  else  than  abject  fear.  The  cold, 
calculating  sneer  of  the  devil,  and  the  frown  of 
God,  were  equally  terrible.  In  any  event,  man's 
fate  was  to  be  arbitrarily  fixed  forever  by  an 
unknown  power  superior  to  all  law,  and  to  all 
fact.  Until  this  belief  is  thrown  aside,  man  must 
consider  himself  the  slave  of  phantom  masters  — 
neither  of  whom  promise  liberty  in  this  world 
nor  in  the  next. 

Man  must  learn  to  rely  upon  himself.  Read- 
ing bibles  will  not  protect  him  from  the  blasts 
of  winter,  but  houses,  fires,  and  clothing  will 
To  prevent  famine,  one  plow  is  worth  a  million 
sermons,  and  even  patent  medicines  will  cure 
more  diseases  than  all  the  prayers  uttered  since 
the  beginning  of  the  world. 

Although  many  eminent  men  have  endeav- 
ored to  harmonize  necessity  and  free  will,  the 
existence  of  evil,  and  the  infinite  power  and    good 


62  THE  GODS. 

ness  of  God,  they  have  succeeded  only  in  pro- 
ducing learned  and  ingenious  failures.  Immense 
efforts  have  been  made  to  reconcile  ideas  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  facts  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded, and  all  persons  who  have  failed  to  per- 
ceive the  pretended  reconciliation,  have  been 
denounced  as  infidels,  atheists  and  scoffers.  The 
whole  power  of  the  church  has  been  brought  to 
bear  against  philosophers  and  scientists  in  order 
to  compel  a  denial  of  the  authority  of  demon- 
stration, and  to  induce  some  Judas  to  betray  Rea- 
son, one  of  the  saviors  of  mankind. 

During  that  frightful  period  known  as  the 
"  Dark  Ages,"  Faith  reigned,  with  scarcely  a  re- 
bellious subject.  Her  temples  were  "  carpeted 
with  knees,"  and  the  wealth  of  nations  adorned 
her  countless  shrines.  The  great  painters  pros- 
tituted their  genius  to  immortalize  her  vagaries, 
while  the  poets  enshrined  them  in  song.  At  her 
bidding,  man  covered  the  earth  with  blood.  The 
scales  of  Justice  were  turned  with  her  gold,  and 
for  her  use  were  invented  all  the  cunning  instru- 
ments of  pain.  She  built  cathedrals  for  God, 
and  dungeons  for  men.  She  peopled  the  clouds 
with  angels  and  the  earth  with  slaves.     For  cen- 


THE  GODS.  63 

turies  the  world  was  retracing  its  steps — going 
steadily  back  toward  barbaric  night!  A  few 
infidels  —  a  few  heretics  cried,  "Halt!"  to  the 
great  rabble  of  ignorant  devotion,  and  made  it 
possible  for  the  genius  of  the  nineteenth  century 
to  revolutionize  the  cruel  creeds  and  supersti- 
tions of  mankind. 

The  thoughts  of  man,  in  order  to  be  of  any 
real  worth,  must  be  free.  Under  the  influence 
of  fear  the  brain  is  paralyzed,  and  instead  of 
bravely  solving  a  problem  for  itself,  tremblingly 
adopts  the  solution  of  another.  As  long  as  a 
majority  of  men  will  cringe  to  the  very  earth 
before  some  petty  prince  or  king,  what  must  be 
the  infinite  abjectness  of  their  little  souls  in  the 
presence  of  their  supposed  creator  and  God  ? 
Under  such  circumstances,  what  can  their  thoughts 
be  worth  ? 

The  originality  of  repetition,  and  the  mental 
vigor  of  acquiescence,  are  all  that  we  have  any 
right  to  expect  from  the  Christian  world.  As 
long  as  every  question  is  answered  by  the  word 
"  God,"  scientific  inquiry  is  simply  impossible. 
As  fast  as  phenomena  are  satisfactorily  explained 
the  domain  of  the  power,  supposed  to  be  superior 


64  THE  GODS. 

to  nature  must  decrease,  while  the  horizon  of 
the  known  must  as  constantly  continue  to  enlarge. 

It  is  no  longer  satisfactory  to  account  for  the 
fall  and  rise  of  nations  by  saying,  "It  is  the  will 
of  God."  Such  an  explanation  puts  ignorance  and 
education  upon  an  exact  equality,  and  does  away 
with  the  idea  of  really  accounting  for  anything 
whatever. 

Will  the  religionist  pretend  that  the  real  end 
of  science  is  to  ascertain  how  and  why  God  acts  ? 
Science,  from  such  a  standpoint  would  consist  in 
investigating  the  law  of  arbitrary  action,  and  in 
a  grand  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  rules  neces- 
sarily obeyed    by  infinite  caprice. 

From  a  philosophical  point  of  view,  science 
is  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  life ;  of  the  condi- 
tions of  happiness ;  of  the  facts  by  which  we  are 
surrounded,  and  the  relations  we  sustain  to  men 
and  things  —  by  means  of  which,  man,  so  to 
speak,  subjugates  nature  and  bends  the  ele- 
mental powers  to  his  will,  making  blind  force 
the  servant  of    his  brain. 

A  belief  in  special  providence  does  away  with 
the  spirit  of  investigation,  and  is  inconsistent 
with  personal  effort.       Why   should  man   e^ndeavor 


THE  GODS.  6& 

to  thwart  the  designs  of  God  ?  Which  of  you. 
by  taking  thought,  can  add  one  cubit  to  his  stat- 
ure? Under  the  influence  of  this  beHef,  man, 
basking  in  the  sunshine  of  a  delusion,  considers 
the  Hlies  of  the  field  and  refuses  to  take  any 
thought  for  the  morrow.  Believing  himself  in  the 
power  of  an  infinite  being,  who  can,  at  any  mo- 
ment, dash  him  to  the  lowest  hell  or  raise  him  to 
the  highest  heaven,  he  necessarily  abandons  the 
idea  of  accomplishing  anything  by  his  own  ef- 
forts. As  long  as  this  belief  was  general,  the 
world  was  filled  with  ignorance,  superstition  and 
misery.  ,  The  energies  of  man  were  wasted  in  a 
vain  effort  to  obtain  the  aid  of  this  power,  sup- 
posed to  be  superior  to  nature.  For  countless 
ages,  even  men  were  sacrificed  upon  the  altar  of 
this  impossible  god.  To  please  him,  mothers 
have  shed  the  blood  of  their  own  babes ;  martyrs 
have  chanted  triumphant  songs  in  the  midst  of 
flame ;  priests  have  gorged  themselves  with  blood ; 
nuns  have  forsworn  the  ecstasies  of  love ;  old 
men  have  tremblingly  implored ;  women  have 
sobbed  and  entreated  ;  every  pain  has  been  en- 
dured, and  every  horror  has  been  perpetrated. 
Through  the  dim   long  years   that   have  fled. 


66  THE  GODS. 

humanity  has  suffered  more  than  can  be  con- 
ceived. Most  of  the  misery  has  been  endured 
by  the  weak,  the  loving  and  the  innocent  Wo- 
men have  been  treated  Hke  poisonous  beasts, 
and  httle  children  trampled  upon  as  though 
they  had  been  vermin.  Numberless  altars  have 
been  reddened,  even  with  the  blood  of  babes ; 
beautiful  girls  have  been  given  to  slimy  serpents ; 
whole  races  of  men  doomed  to  centuries  of 
slavery,  and  everywhere  there  has  been  outrage 
beyond  the  power  of  genius  to  express.  During 
all  these  years  the  suffering  have  supplicated ; 
the  withered  lips  of  famine  have  prayed ;  the 
pale  victims  have  implored,  and  Heaven  has 
been  deaf  and  blind. 

Of  what  use  have  the  gods  been  to  man? 

It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  some  god  created 
the  world,  established  certain  laws,  and  then 
turned  his  attention  to  other  matters,  leaving  his 
children  weak,  ignorant  and  unaided,  to  fight  the 
battle  of  life  alone.  It  is  no  solution  to  declare 
that  in  some  other  world  this  god  will  render 
a  few,  or  even  all,  his  subjects  happy.  What 
right  have  we  to  expect  that  a  perfectly  wise, 
good  and  powerful  being  will  ever  do  better  than 


THE  GODS.  67 

he  has  done,  and  is  doing?  The  world  is  filled 
with  imperfections.  If  it  was  made  by  an  infi- 
nite being,  what  reason  have  we  for  saying  that 
he  will  render  it  nearer  perfect  than  it  now  is  ? 
If  the  infinite  "Father"  allows  a  majority  of  his 
children  to  live  in  ignorance  and  wretchedness 
now,  what  evidence  is  there  that  he  will  ever 
improve  their  condition  ?  Will  God  have  more 
power?  Will  he  become  more  merciful?  Will 
his  love  for  his  poor  creatures  increase  ?  Can 
the  conduct  of  infinite  wisdom,  power  and  love 
ever  change  ?  Is  the  infinite  capable  of  any  im- 
provement whatever? 

We  are  informed  by  the  clergy  that  this  world 
is  a  kind  of  school ;  that  the  evils  by  which 
we  are  surrounded  are  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
veloping our  souls,  and  that  only  by  suffering 
can  men  become  pure,  strong,  virtuous  and 
grand. 

Supposing  this  to  be  true,  what  is  to  become 
of  those  who  die  in  infancy?  The  little  chil- 
dren, according  to  this  philosophy,  can  never  be 
developed.  They  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  escape 
the  ennobling  influences  of  pain  and  misery,  and 
as  a  consequence,   are  doomed  to  an   eternity  of 


68  THE  GODS. 

mental  inferiority.  If  the  clergy  are  right  on  this 
question,  none  are  so  unfortunate  as  the  happy, 
and  we  should  envy  only  the  suffering  and  dis- 
tressed. If  evil  is  necessary  to  the  development 
of  man,  in  this  life,  how  is  it  possible  for  the 
soul  to  improve  in  the  perfect  joy  of  Paradise  ? 

Since  Paley  found  his  watch,  the  argument 
of  "  design  "  has  been  relied  upon  as  unanswera- 
ble. The  church  teaches  that  this  world,  and  all 
that  it  contains,  were  created  substantially  as  we 
now  see  them  ;  that  the  grasses,  the  flowers,  the 
trees,  and  all  animals,  including  man,  were  special 
creations,  and  that  they  sustain  no  necessary  re- 
lation to  each  other.  The  most  orthodox  will 
admit  that  some  earth  has  been  washed  into  the 
sea ;  that  the  sea  has  encroached  a  little  upon 
the  land,  and  that  some  mountains  may  be  a 
trifle  lower  than  in  the  morning  of  creation. 
The  theory  of  gradual  development  was  unknown 
to  our  fathers ;  the  idea  of  evolution  did  not 
occur  to  them.  Our  fathers  looked  upon  the 
then  arrangement  of  things  as  the  primal  ar-- 
rangement.  The  earth  appeared  to  them  fresh 
from  the  hands  of  a  deity.  They  knew  nothing 
of    the   slow   evolutions    of   countless    years,  but 


THE   GODS.  69 

supposed  that  the  almost  infinite  variety  of  veg- 
etable and  animal  forms  had  existed  from  the  first. 
Suppose  that  upon  some  island  we  should 
find  a  man  a  million  years  of  age,  and  suppose 
that  we  should  find  him  in  the  possession  of  a 
most  beautiful  carriage,  constructed  upon  the  most 
perfect  model.  And  suppose,  further,  that  he 
should  tell  us  that  it  was  the  result  of  several 
hundred  thousand  years  of  labor  and  of  thought ; 
that  for  fifty  thousand  years  he  used  as  flat  a 
log  as  he  could  find,  before  it  occurred  to  him, 
that  by  splitting  the  log,  he  could  have  the  same 
surface  with  only  half  the  weight ;  that  it  took 
him  many  thousand  years  to  invent  wheels  for 
this  log ;  that  the  wheels  he  first  used  were  solid, 
and  that  fifty  thousand  years  of  thought  sug- 
gested the  use  of  spokes  and  tire  ;  that  for  many 
centuries  he  used  the  wheels  without  linch-pins  ; 
that  it  took  a  hundred  thousand  years  more  to 
think  of  using  four  wheels,  instead  of  two ;  that 
for  ages  he  walked  behind  the  carriage,  when 
going  down  hill,  in  order  to  hold  it  back,  and 
that  only  by  a  lucky  chance  he  invented  the 
tongue ;  would  we  conclude  that  this  man,  from 
the  very   first,   had   been   an   infinitely  ingenious 


70  THE  GODS. 

and  perfect  mechanic  ?  Suppose  we  found  him 
living  in  an  elegant  mansion,  and  he  should  in- 
form us  that  he  lived  in  that  house  for  five  hun- 
dred thousand  years  before  he  thought  of  putting 
on  a  roof,  and  that  he  had  but  recently  invented 
windows  and  doors ;  would  we  say  that  from  the 
beginning  he  had  been  an  infinitely  accomplished 
and  scientific  architect? 

Does  not  an  improvement  in  the  things  cre- 
ated, show  a  corresponding  improvement  in  the 
creator  ? 

Would  an  infinitely  wise,  good  and  powerful 
God,  intending  to  produce  man,  commence  with 
the  lowest  possible  forms  of  life ;  with  the  sim- 
plest organism  that  can  be  imagined,  and  during 
immeasurable  periods  of  time,  slowly  and  almost 
imperceptibly  improve  upon  the  rude  beginning, 
until  man  was  evolved?  Would  countless  ages 
thus  be  wasted  in  the  production  of  awkward 
forms,  afterwards  abandoned?  Can  the  intelli- 
gence of  man  discover  the  least  wisdom  in  cov- 
ering the  earth  with  crawling,  creeping  horrors, 
that  live  only  upon  the  agonies  and  pangs  of 
others  ?  Can  we  see  the  propriety  of  so  con- 
structing the  earth,  that  only  an   insignificant  per- 


THE  GODS.  71 

tion  of  its  surface  is  capable  of  producing  an 
intelligent  man  ?  Who  can  appreciate  the  mercy 
of  so  making  the  world  that  all  animals  devour 
animals ;  so  that  every  mouth  is  a  slaughter- 
house, and  every  stomach  a  tomb  ?  Is  it  possible 
to  discover  infinite  intelligence  and  love  in  uni- 
versal and  eternal  carnage? 

What  would  we  think  of  a  father,  who  should 
give  a  farm  to  his  children,  and  before  giving 
them  possession  should  plant  upon  it  thousands 
of  deadly  shrubs  and  vines ;  should  stock  it  with 
ferocious  beasts,  and  poisonous  reptiles;  should 
take  pains  to  put  a  few  swamps  in  the  neighbor- 
hood to  breed  malaria ;  should  so  arrange  mat- 
ters, that  the  ground  would  occasionally  open 
and  swallow  a  few  of  his  darlings,  and  besides 
all  this,  should  establish  a  few  volcanoes  in  the 
immediate  vicinity,  that  might  at  any  moment 
overwhelm  his  children  with  rivers  of  fire  ?  Sup- 
pose that  this  father  neglected  to  tell  his  children 
which  of  the  plants  were  deadly ;  that  the  rep- 
tiles were  poisonous ;  failed  to  say  anything  about 
the  earthquakes,  and  kept  the  volcano  business  a 
profound  secret ;  would  we  pronounce  him  angel 
or  fiend? 


1'3  THE   GODS. 

And  yet  this  Is  exactly  what  the  orthodox 
God  has  done. 

According  to  the  theologians,  God  prepared 
this  globe  expressly  for  the  habitation  of  his 
loved  children,  and  yet  he  filled  the  forests  with 
ferocious  beasts  ;  placed  serpents  in  every  path ; 
stuffed  the  world  with  earthquakes,  and  adorned 
its  surface  with  mountains  of  flame. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  we  are  told  that  the 
world  is  perfect ;  that  it  was  created  by  a  perfect 
being,  and  is  therefore  necessarily  perfect.  The 
next  moment,  these  same  persons  will  tell  us  that 
the  world  was  cursed ;  covered  with  brambles, 
thistles  and  thorns,  and  that  man  was  doomed 
to  disease  and  death,  simply  because  our  poor, 
dear  mother  ate  an  apple  contrary  to  the  com- 
mand of  an  arbitrary  God. 

A  very  pious  friend  of  mine,  having  heard 
that  I  had  said  the  world  was  full  of  imperfec- 
tions, asked  me  if  the  report  was  true.  Upon 
being  informed  that  it  was,  he  expressed  great 
surprise  that  any  one  could  be  guilty  of  such  pre- 
sumption. He  said  that,  in  his  judgment,  it  was 
impossible  to  point  out  an  imperfection.  "  Be 
kind   enough,"  said   he,   "  to    name  even  one  im- 


THE  GODS.  7a 

provement  that  you  could  make,  if  you  had  the 
power."  "Well,"  said  I,  "I  would  make  good 
health  catching,  instead  of  disease."  The  truth  is, 
it  is  impossible  to  harmonize  all  the  ills,  and 
pains,  and  agonies  of  this  world  with  the  idea 
that  we  were  created  by,  and  are  watched  over 
and  protected  by  an  infinitely  wise,  powerful  and 
beneficent  God,  who  is  superior  to  and  inde- 
pendent of  nature. 

The  clergy,  however,  balance  all  the  real  ills 
of  this  life  with  the  expected  joys  of  the  next. 
We  are  assured  that  all  is  perfection  in  heaven 
—  there  the  skies  are  cloudless  —  there  all  is 
serenity  and  peace.  Here  empires  may  be  over' 
thrown ;  dynasties  may  be  extinguished  in  blood ; 
millions  of  slaves  may  toil  'neath  the  fierce  rays 
of  the  sun,  and  the  cruel  strokes  of  the  lash ; 
yet  all  is  happiness  in  heaven.  Pestilences  may 
strew  the  earth  with  corpses  of  the  loved  ;  the 
survivors  may  bend  above  them  in  agony  —  yet 
the  placid  bosom  of  heaven  is  unruffled.  Chil- 
dren may  expire  vainly  asking  for  bread ;  babes 
may  be  devoured  by  serpents,  while  the  gods  sit 
smiling  in  the  clouds.  The  innocent  may  lan- 
guish unto    death    in  the    obscurity  of    dungeons ; 


74  THE  GODS. 

brave  men  and  heroic  women  may  be  changed 
to  ashes  at  the  bigot's  stake,  while  heaven  is 
filled  with  song  and  joy.  Out  on  the  wide  sea, 
in  darkness  and  in  storm,  the  shipwrecked  struggle 
with  the  cruel  waves  while  the  angels  play  upon 
their  golden  harps.  The  streets  of  the  world 
are  filled  with  the  diseased,  the  deformed  and 
the  helpless ;  the  chambers  of  pain  are  crowded 
with  the  pale  forms  of  the  suffering,  while  the 
angels  float  and  fly  in  the  happy  realms  of  day. 
In  heaven  they  are  too  happy  to  have  sympathy; 
too  busy  singing  to  aid  the  imploring  and  dis- 
tressed. Their  eyes  are  blinded ;  their  ears  are 
stopped  and  their  hearts  are  turned  to  stone  by 
the  infinite  selfishness  of  joy.  The  saved  mar- 
iner is  too  happy  when  he  touches  the  shore  to 
give  a  moment's  thought  to  his  drowning  broth- 
ers. With  the  indifference  of  happiness,  with  the 
contempt  of  bliss,  heaven  barely  glances  at  the 
miseries  of  earth.  Cities  are  devoured  by  the 
rushing  lava ;  the  earth  opens  and  thousands 
perish ;  women  raise  their  clasped  hands  towards 
heaven,  but  the  gods  are  too  happy  to  aid  their 
children.  The  smiles  of  the  deities  are  unac- 
quainted with  the  tears  of  men.  The  shouts  of 
heaven  drown  the  sobs  of  earth. 


THE  GODS.  75 

Having  shown  how  man  created  gods,  and 
how  he  became  the  trembling  slave  of  his  own 
creation,  the  questions  naturally  arise  :  How  did 
he  free  himself  even  a  little,  from  these  monarchs 
of  the  sky,  from  these  despots  of  the  clouds, 
from  this  aristocracy  of  the  air  ?  How  did  he, 
even  to  the  extent  that  he  has,  outgrow  his  ig- 
norant, abject  terror,  and  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
superstition  ? 

Probably,  the  first  thing  that  tended  to  dis- 
abuse his  mind  was  the  discovery  of  order,  of 
regularity,  of  periodicity  in  the  universe.  From 
this  he  began  to  suspect  that  everything  did  not 
happen  purely  with  reference  to  him.  He  no- 
ticed, that  whatever  he  might  do,  the  motions  of 
the  planets  were  always  the  same  ;  that  eclipses 
were  periodical,  and  that  even  comets  came 
at  certain  intervals.  This  convinced  him  that 
eclipses  and  comets  had  nothing  to  do  with  him, 
and  that  his  conduct  had  nothing  to  do  with 
them.  He  perceived  that  they  were  not  caused 
for  his  benefit  or  injury.  He  thus  learned  to 
regard  them  with  admiration  instead  of  fear. 
He  began  to  suspect  that  famine  was  not  sent 
by  some   enraged   and   revengeful    deity,  but   re- 


76  THE  GODS. 

suited  often  from  the  neglect  and  ignorance  of 
man.  He  learned  that  diseases  were  not  pro- 
duced by  evil  spirits.  He  found  that  sickness 
was  occasioned  by  natural  causes,  and  could  be 
cured  by  natural  means.  He  demonstrated,  to 
his  own  satisfaction  at  least,  that  prayer  is  not 
a  medicine.  He  found  by  sad  experience  that 
his  gods  were  of  no  practical  use,  as  they  never 
assisted  him,  except  when  he  was  perfectly  able 
to  help  himself.  At  last,  he  began  to  discover 
that  his  individual  action  had  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  strange  appearances  in  the  heavens ; 
that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  be  bad  enough 
to  cause  a  whirlwind,  or  good  enough  to  stop 
one.  After  many  centuries  of  thought,  he  about 
half  concluded  that  making  mouths  at  a  priest 
would  not  necessarily  cause  an  earthquake.  He 
noticed,  and  no  doubt  with  considerable  astonish- 
ment, that  very  good  men  were  occasionally 
struck  by  lightning,  while  very  bad  ones  escaped. 
He  was  frequently  forced  to  the  painful  con- 
clusion (and  it  is  the  most  painful  to  which  any 
human  being  ever  was  forced)  that  the  right 
did  not  always  prevail.  He  noticed  that  the 
gods    did    not    interfere    in    behalf  of    the    weak 


THE  GODS.  11 

and  innocent.  He  was  now  and  then  aston- 
ished by  seeing  an  unbeHever  in  the  enjoyment 
of  most  excellent  health.  He  finally  ascertained 
that  there  could  be  no  possible  connection  be- 
tween an  unusually  severe  winter  and  his  failure 
to  give  a  sheep  to  a  priest.  He  began  to  sus- 
pect that  the  order  of  the  universe  was  not  con- 
stantly being  changed  to  assist  him  because  he 
repeated  a  creed.  He  observed  that  some  chil- 
dren would  steal  after  having  been  regularly 
baptized.  He  noticed  a  vast  difference  between 
religion  and  justice,  and  that  the  worshipers  of 
the  same  god,  took  delight  in  cutting  each 
other's  throats.  He  saw  that  these  religious  dis- 
putes filled  the  world  with  hatred  and  slavery. 
At  last  he  had  the  courage  to  suspect,  that  no 
god  at  any  time  interferes  with  the  order  of 
events.  He  learned  a  few  facts,  and  these  facts 
positively  refused  to  harmonize  with  the  igno- 
rant superstitions  of  his  fathers.  Finding  his 
sacred  books  incorrect  and  false  in  some  par- 
ticulars, his  faith  in  their  authenticity  began  to 
be  shaken  ;  finding  his  priests  ignorant  upon 
some  points,  he  began  to  lose  respect  for  the 
doth.  This  was  the  commencement  of  intel- 
lectual freedom. 


78  THE  GODS. 

The  civilization  of  man  has  increased  just  to 
the  same  extent  that  religious  power  has  de- 
creased. The  intellectual  advancement  of  man 
depends  upon  how  often  he  can  exchange  an 
old  superstition  for  a  new  truth.  The  church 
never  enabled  a  human  being  to  make  even  one 
of  these  exchanges  ;  on  the  contrary,  all  her 
power  has  been  used  to  prevent  them.  In  spite, 
however,  of  the  church,  man  found  that  some 
of  his  religious  conceptions  were  wrong.  By- 
reading  his  Bible,  he  found  that  the  ideas  of  his 
God  were  more  cruel  and  brutal  than  those  of 
the  most  depraved  savage.  He  also  discovered 
that  this  holy  book  was  filled  with  ignorance, 
and  that  it  must  have  been  written  by  persons 
wholly  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  phe- 
nomena by  which  we  are  surrounded  ;  and  now 
and  then,  some  man  had  the  goodness  and  cour- 
age to  speak  his  honest  thoughts.  In  every 
age  some  thinker,  some  doubter,  some  investi- 
gator, some  hater  of  hypocrisy,  some  despiser  of 
sham,  some  brave  lover  of  the  right,  has  gladly, 
proudly  and  heroically  braved  the  ignorant  fury 
of  superstition  for  the  sake  of  man  and  truth. 
These  divine  men  were  generally  torn  in  pieces 


THE  GODS.  *l% 

by  the  worshipers  of  the  gods.  Socrates  was 
poisoned  because  he  lacked  reverence  for  some 
of  the  deities.  Christ  was  crucified  by  a  rehgious 
rabble  for  the  crime  of  blasphemy.  Nothing  is 
more  gratifying  to  a  religionist  than  to  destroy 
his  enemies  at  the  command  of  God.  Religious 
persecution  springs  from  a  due  admixture  of  love 
towards  God  and  hatred  towards  man. 

The  terrible  religious  wars  that  inundated  the 
world  with  blood  tended  at  least  to  bring  all  re- 
ligion into  disgrace  and  hatred.  Thoughtful 
people  began  to  question  the  divine  origin  of  a 
religion  that  made  its  believers  hold  the  rights 
of  others  in  absolute  contempt.  A  few  began  to 
compare  Christianity  with  the  religions  of  hea- 
then people,  and  were  forced  to  admit  that  the 
differeilce  was  hardly  worth  dying  for.  They 
also  found  that  other  nations  were  even  happier 
and  more  prosperous  than  their  own.  They  began 
to  suspect  that  their  religion,  after  all,  was  not  of 
much  real  value. 

For  three  hundred  years  the  Christian  world 
endeavored  to  rescue  from  the  "  Infidel  "  the  empty 
sepulchre  of  Christ.  For  three  hundred  years  the 
armies  of  the  cross  were  baffled  and  beaten  by  the 


80  THE  GODS. 

victorious  hosts  of  an  impudent  impostor.  This 
immense  fact  sowed  the  seeds  of  distrust  through- 
out all  Christendom,  and  millions  began  to  lose 
confidence  in  a  God  who  had  been  vanquished  by 
Mohammed.  The  people  also  found  that  com- 
merce made  friends  where  religion  made  enemies, 
and  that  religious  zeal  was  utterly  incompatible 
with  peace  between  nations  or  individuals.  They 
discovered  that  those  who  loved  the  gods  most 
were  apt  to  love  men  least ;  that  the  arrogance 
of  universal  forgiveness  was  amazing  ;  that  the 
most  malicious  had  the  effrontery  to  pray  for  their 
enemies,  and  that  humility  and  tyranny  were  the 
fruit  of  the  same  tree. 

For  ages,  a  deadly  conflict  has  been  waged 
between  a  few  brave  men  and  women  of  thought 
and  genius  upon  the  one  side,  and  the  great  igno- 
rant religious  mass  on  the  other.  This  is  the 
war  between  Science  and  Faith.  The  few  have 
appealed  to  reason,  to  honor,  to  law,  to  freedom, 
to  the  known,  and  to  happiness  here  in  this  world. 
The  many  have  appealed  to  prejudice,  to  fear,  to 
miracle,  to  slavery,  to  the  unknown,  and  to  misery 
hereafter.  The  few  have  said,  **  Think ! "  The 
many  have  said,  "  Believe  !  " 


THE  GODS.  81 

The  first  doubt  was  the  womb  and  cradle  of 
progress,  and  from  the  first  doubt,  man  has  con- 
tinued to  advance.  Men  began  to  investigate, 
and  the  church  began  to  oppose.  The  astron- 
omer scanned  the  heavens,  while  the  church 
branded  his  grand  forehead  with  the  word,  "In- 
fidel ; "  and  now,  not  a  glittering  star  in  all  the 
vast  expanse  bears  a  Christian  name.  In  spite 
of  all  religion,  the  geologist  penetrated  the  earth, 
read  her  history  in  books  of  stone,  and  found, 
hidden  within  her  bosom,  souvenirs  of  all  the 
ages.  Old  ideas  perished  in  the  retort  of  the 
chemist,  and  useful  truths  took  their  places.  One 
by  one  religious  conceptions  have  been  placed  in 
the  crucible  of  science,  and  thus  far,  nothing  but 
dross  has  been  found.  A  new  world  has  been 
discovered  by  the  microscope ;  everywhere  has 
been  found  the  infinite  ;  in  every  direction  man 
has  investigated  and  explored  and  nowhere,  in 
earth  or  stars,  has  been  found  the  footstep  of 
any  being  superior  to  or  independent  of  nature. 
Nowhere  has  been  discovered  the  slightest  evi- 
dence of  any  interference  from  without. 

These   are    the    sublime    truths    that    enabled 
man  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  superstition.     These 


82  THE  GODS. 

are  the  splendid  facts  that  snatched  the  sceptre  of 
authority  from  the  hands  of  priests. 

In  that  vast  cemetery,  called  the  past,  are 
most  of  the  religions  of  men,  and  there,  too,  are 
nearly  all  their  gods.  The  sacred  temples  of 
India  were  ruins  long  ago.  Over  column  and 
cornice  ;  over  the  painted  and  pictured  walls,  cling 
and  creep  the  trailing  vines.  Brahma,  the  golden, 
with  four  heads  and  four  arms  ;  Vishnu,  the  som- 
bre, the  punisher  of  the  wicked,  with  his  three 
eyes,  his  crescent,  and  his  necklace  of  skulls ; 
Siva,  the  destroyer,  red  with  seas  of  blood ;  Kali, 
the  goddess  ;  Draupadi,  the  white-armed,  and 
Chrishna,  the  Christ,  all  passed  away  and  left  the 
thrones  of  heaven  desolate.  Along  the  banks 
of  the  sacred  Nile,  Isis  no  longer  wandering 
weeps,  searching  for  the  dead  Osiris.  The  shad- 
ow of  Typhon's  scowl  falls  no  more  upon  the 
waves.  The  sun  rises  as  of  yore,  and  his  golden 
beams  still  smite  the  lips  of  Memnon,  but  Mem- 
non  is  as  voiceless  as  the  Sphinx.  The  sacred 
fanes  are  lost  in  desert  sands ;  the  dusty  mum- 
mies are  still  waiting  for  the  resurrection  prom- 
ised by  their  priests,  and  the  old  beliefs,  wrought 
in    curiously    sculptured   stone,   sleep    in  the  mys- 


THE  GODS.  83 

tery  of  a  language  lost  and  dead.  Odin,  the 
author  of  life  and  soul,  Vili  and  Ve,  and  the 
mighty  giant  Ymir,  strode  long  ago  from  the  icy 
halls  of  the  North ;  and  Thor,  with  iron  glove 
and  glittering  hammer,  dashes  mountains  to  the 
earth  no  more.  Broken  are  the  circles  and 
cromlechs  of  the  ancient  Druids ;  fallen  upon  the 
summits  of  the  hills,  and  covered  with  the  cen- 
turies' moss,  are  the  sacred  cairns.  The  divine 
fires  of  Persia  and  of  the  Aztecs,  have  died  out 
in  the  ashes  of  the  past,  and  there  is  none  to 
rekindle,  and  none  to  feed  the  holy  flames.  The 
harp  of  Orpheus  is  still ;  the  drained  cup  of 
Bacchus  has  been  thrown  aside ;  Venus  lies  dead 
in  stone,  and  her  white  bosom  heaves  no  more 
with  love.  The  streams  still  murmur,  but  no 
naiads  bathe ;  the  trees  still  wave,  but  in  the 
forest  aisles  no  dryads  dance.  The  gods  have 
flown  from  high  Olympus.  Not  even  the  beau- 
tiful women  can  lure  them  back,  and  Danae  lies 
unnoticed,  naked  to  the  stars.  Hushed  forever 
are  the  thunders  of  Sinai  ;  lost  are  the  voices 
of  the  prophets,  and  the  land  once  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  is  but  a  desert  waste.  One  by 
one,  the  myths  have  faded  from  the   clouds  :  one 


84  THE  GODS. 

by  one,  the  phantom  host  has  disappeared,  and 
one  by  one,  facts,  truths  and  reaHties  have  taken 
their  places.  The  supernatural  has  almost  gone, 
but  the  natural  remains.  The  gods  have  fled, 
but  man  is  here. 

Nations,  like  individuals,  have  their  periods  of 
youth,  of  manhood  and  decay.  Religions  are  the 
same.  The  same  inexorable  destiny  awaits  them 
all.  The  gods  created  by  the  nations  must  per- 
ish with  their  creators.  They  were  created  by 
men,  and  like  men,  they  must  pass  away.  The 
deities  of  one  age  are  the  by-words  of  the  next 
The  religion  of  our  day,  and  country,  is  no  more 
exempt  from  the  sneer  of  the  future  than  the 
others  have  been.  When  India  was  supreme, 
Brahma  sat  upon  the  world's  throne.  When  the 
sceptre  passed  to  Egypt,  Isis  and  Osiris  received 
the  homage  of  mankind.  Greece,  with  her  fierce 
valor,  swept  to  empire,  and  Zeus  put  on  the 
purple  of  authority.  The  earth  trembled  with 
the  tread  of  Rome's  intrepid  sons,  and  Jove 
grasped  with  mailed  hand  the  thunderbolts  of 
heaven.  Rome  fell,  and  Christians  from  her  ter- 
ritory, with  the  red  sword  of  war,  carved  out 
the   ruling   nations  of  the  world,  and  now  Christ 


THE  GODS.  \  85 

sits  upon  the  old  throne.  Who  will  be  his  suc- 
cessor ? 

Day  by  day,  religious  conceptions  grow  less 
and  less  intense.  Day  by  day,  the  old  spirit 
dies  out  of  book  and  creed.  The  burning  enthu- 
siasm, the  quenchless  zeal  of  the  early  church 
have  gone,  never,  never  to  return.  The  ceremo- 
nies remain,  but  the  ancient  faith  is  fading  out 
of  the  human  heart.  The  worn-out  arguments 
fail  to  convince,  and  denunciations  that  once 
blanched  the  faces  of  a  race,  excite  in  us  only 
derision  and  disgust.  As  time  rolls  on,  the  mir- 
acles grow  mean  and  small,  and  the  evidences 
our  fathers  thought  conclusive  utterly  fail  to  sat- 
isfy us.  There  is  an  "  irrepressible  conflict "  be- 
tween religion  and  science,  and  they  cannot 
peaceably  occupy  the  same  brain  nor  the  same 
world. 

While  utterly  discarding  all  creeds,  and  deny- 
ing the  truth  of  all  religions,  there  is  neither  in 
my  heart  nor  upon  my  lips  a  sneer  for  the  hope- 
ful, loving  and  tender  souls  who  believe  that 
from  all  this  discord  will  result  a  perfect  har- 
mony ;  that  every  evil  will  in  some  mysterious 
way  become   a  good,   and  that  above   and   over 


86  THE  GODS. 

all  there  is  a  being  who,  in  some  way,  will  reclaim 
and  glorify  every  one  of  the  children  of  men  ; 
but  for  those  who  heartlessly  try  to  prove  that 
salvation  is  almost  impossible ;  that  damnation 
is  almost  certain  ;  that  the  highway  of  the  uni- 
verse leads  to  hell ;  who  fill  life  with  fear  and 
death  with  horror ;  who  curse  the  cradle  and 
mock  the  tomb,  it  is  impossible  to  entertain  other 
than  feelings  of  pity,  contempt  and  scorn. 

Reason,  Observation  and  Experience  —  the 
Holy  Trinity  of  Science  —  have  taught  us  that 
happiness  is  the  only  good ;  that  the  time  to  be 
happy  is  now,  and  the  way  to  be  happy  is  to 
make  others  so.  This  is  enough  for  us.  In  this 
belief  we  are  content  to  live  and  die.  If  by  any 
possibility  the  existence  of  a  power  superior  to, 
and  independent  of,  nature  shall  be  demonstrated, 
there  will  then  be  time  enough  to  kneel.  Until 
then,  let  us  stand  erect. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  infidels  in  all 
ages  have  battled  for  the  rights  of  man,  and 
have  at  all  times  been  the  fearless  advocates  of 
liberty  and  justice,  we  are  constantly  charged  by 
the  church  with  tearing  down  without  building 
again.      The   church   should   by   this    time    know 


THE  GODS.  87 

that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  rob  men  of  their 
opinions.  The  history  of  religious  persecution 
fully  establishes  the  fact  that  the  mind  necessarily 
resists  and  defies  every  attempt  to  control  it  by 
violence.  The  mind  necessarily  clings  to  old 
ideas  until  prepared  for  the  new.  The  moment 
we  comprehend  the  truth,  all  erroneous  ideas  are 
of  necessity  cast  aside. 

A  surgeon  once  called  upon  a  poor  cripple 
and  kindly  offered  to  render  him  any  assistance 
in  his  power.  The  surgeon  began  to  discourse 
very  learnedly  upon  the  nature  and  origin  of 
disease  ;  of  the  curative  properties  of  certain 
medicines  ;  of  the  advantages  of  exercise,  air  and 
light,  and  of  the  various  ways  in  which  health 
and  strength  could  be  restored.  These  remarks 
were  so  full  of  good  sense,  and  discovered  so 
much  profound  thought  and  accurate  knowledge, 
that  the  cripple,  becoming  thoroughly  alarmed, 
cried  out,  "  Do  not,  I  pray  you,  take  away  my 
crutches.  They  are  my  only  support,  and  with- 
out them  I  should  be  miserable  indeed ! "  "I  am 
not  going,"  said  the  surgeon,  "  to  take  away  your 
crutches.  I  am  going  to  cure  you,  and  then  you 
will  throw  the  crutches  away  yourself." 


88  THE  GODS. 

For  the  vagaries  of  the  clouds  the  infidels 
propose  to  substitute  the  realities  of  earth ;  for 
superstition,  the  splendid  demonstrations  and 
achievements  of  science ;  and  for  theological  tyr- 
anny, the  chainless  liberty  of  thought. 

We  do  not  say  that  we  have  discovered  all ; 
that  our  doctrines  are  the  all  in  all  of  truth.  We 
know  of  no  end  to  the  development  of  man. 
We  cannot  unravel  the  infinite  complications  of 
matter  and  force.  The  history  of  one  monad  is 
as  unknown  as  that  of  the  universe ;  one  drop 
of  water  is  as  wonderful  as  all  the  seas  ;  one  leaf, 
as  all  the  forests ;  and  one  grain  of  sand,  as  all 
the  stars. 

We  are  not  endeavoring  to  chain  the  future, 
but  to  free  the  present.  We  are  not  forging  fet- 
ters for  our  children,  but  we  are  breaking  those 
our  fathers  made  for  us.  We  are  the  advocates 
of  inquiry,  of  investigation  and  thought.  This 
of  itself,  is  an  admission  that  we  are  not  per- 
fectly satisfied  with  all  our  conclusions.  Philoso- 
phy has  not  the  egotism  of  faith.  While  super- 
stition builds  walls  and  creates  obstructions,  sci- 
ence opens  all  the  highways  of  thought.  We  do 
not  pretend  to  have  circumnavigated  everything, 


THE  GODS.  89 

and  to  have  solved  all  difficulties,  but  we  do  be- 
lieve that  it  is  better  to  love  men  than  to  fear 
gods  ;  that  it  is  grander  and  nobler  to  think  and 
investigate  for  yourself  than  to  repeat  a  creed. 
We  are  satisfied  that  there  can  be  but  little  lib- 
erty on  earth  while  men  worship  a  tyrant  in 
heaven.  We  do  not  expect  to  accomplish  every- 
thing in  our  day ;  but  we  want  to  do  what  good 
we  can,  and  to  render  all  the  service  possible  in 
the  holy  cause  of  human  progress.  We  know 
that  doing  away  with  gods  and  supernatural  per- 
sons and  powers  is  not  an  end.  It  is  a  means 
to  an  end :  the  real  end  being  the  happiness 
of  man. 

Felling  forests  is  not  the  end  of  agriculture. 
Driving  pirates  from  the  sea  is  not  all  there  is 
of  commerce. 

We  are  laying  the  foundations  of  the  grand 
temple  of  the  future  —  not  the  temple  of  all  the 
gods,  but  of  all  the  people  —  wherein,  with  ap- 
propriate rites,  will  be  celebrated  the  religion  of 
Humanity.  We  are  doing  what  little  we  can  to 
hasten  the  coming  of  the  day  when  society  shall 
cease  producing  millionaires  and  mendicants  — 
gorged  indolence  and   famished    industry  —  truth 


90  THE  GODS. 

in  rags,  and  superstition  robed  and  crowned.  We 
are  looking  for  the  time  when  the  useful  shall 
be  the  honorable  ;  and  .when  Reason,  throned  upon 
the  world's  brain,  shall  be  the  King  of  Kings,  and 
God  of  Gods. 


HUMBOLDT. 


HUMBOLDT. 


The  Universe  .is  Governed  by  Law. 

GREAT  men  seem  to  be  a  part  of  the  infinite 
—  brothers  of  the  mountains  and  the  seas. 

Humboldt  was  one  of  these.  He  was  one 
of  those  serene  men,  in  some  respects  like  our 
own  Franklin,  whose  names  have  all  the  lustre  of 
a  star.  He  was  one  of  the  few,  great  enough  to 
rise  above  the  superstition  and  prejudice  of  his 
time,  and  to  know  that  experience,  observation, 
and  reason  are  the  only  basis  of  knowledge. 

He  became  one  of  the  greatest  of  men  in  spite 
of  having  been  born  rich  and  noble  —  in  spite  of 
position.  I  say  in  spite  of  these  things,  because 
wealth  and  position  are  generally  the  enemies 
of  genius,  and  the  destroyers  of  talent. 

It  is  often  said  of  this  or  that  man,  that  he  is  a 
self-made  man  —  that  he  was  bom  of  the  poorest 
and  humblest  parents,  and  that  with  every  obstacle 

(83) 


94  HUMBOLDT. 

to  overcome  he  became  great.  This  is  a  mistake. 
Poverty  is  generally  an  advantage.  Most  of  the 
intellectual  giants  of  the  world  have  been  nursed 
at  the  sad  and  loving  breast  of  poverty.  Most  of 
those  who  have  climbed  highest  on  the  shining 
ladder  of  fame  commenced  at  the  lowest  round. 
They  were  reared  in  the  straw-thatched  cottages 
of  Europe  ;  in  the  log-houses  of  America ;  in  the 
factories  of  the  great  cities  ;  in  the  midst  of  toil ; 
in  the  smoke  and  din  of  labor,  and  on  the  verge  of 
want.  They  were  rocked  by  the  feet  of  mothers 
whose  hands,  at  the  same  time,  were  busy  with 
the  needle  or  the  wheel. 

It  is  hard  for  the  rich  to  resist  the  thousand 
allurements  of  pleasure,  and  so  I  say,  that  Hum- 
boldt, in  spite  of  having  been  born  to  wealth 
and  high  social  position,  became  truly  and 
grandly  great. 

In  the  antiquated  and  romantic  castle  of  Tegel, 
by  the  side  of  the  pine  forest,  on  the  shore  of 
the  charming  lake,  near  the  beautiful  city  of  Ber- 
lin, the  great  Humboldt,  one  hundred  years  ago 
to-day,  was  born,  and  there  he  was  educated  after 
the  method  suggested  by  Rousseau, — Campe,  the 
philologist  and   critic,  and  the    intellectual    Kunth 


HUMBOLDT.  95 

being  his  tutors.  There  he  received  the  impres- 
sions that  determined  his  career ;  there  the  great 
idea  that  the  universe  is  governed  by  law,  took 
possession  of  his  mind,  and  there  he  dedicated 
his  life  to  the  demonstration  of  this  sublime 
truth. 

He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  source  of 
man's  unhappiness  is  his  ignorance  of  nature. 

After  having  received  the  most  thorough  edu- 
cation at  that  time  possible,  and  having  deter- 
mined to  what  end  he  would  devote  the  labors 
of  his  life,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  sci- 
ences of  geology,  mining,  mineralogy,  botany,  the 
distribution  of  plants,  the  distribution  of  animals, 
and  the  effect  of  climate  upon  man.  All  grand 
physical  phenomena  were  investigated  and  ex- 
plained. From  his  youth  he  had  felt  a  great 
desire  for  travel.  He  felt,  as  he  says,  a  violent 
passion  for  the  sea,  and  longed  to  look  upon  na- 
ture in  her  wildest  and  most  rugged  forms.  He 
longed  to  give  a  physical  description  of  the  uni- 
verse—  a  grand  picture  of  nature;  to  account  for 
all  phenomena ;  to  discover  the  laws  governing 
the  world ;  to  do  away  with  that  splendid  delu- 
sion called  special  providence,  and  to  establish 
ythe  fact  that  the  universe  is  governed  by  law. 


96  HUMBOLDT. 

To  establish  this  truth  was,  and  is,  of  infinite 
importance  to  mankind.  That  fact  is  the  death- 
knell  of  superstition ;  it  gives  liberty  to  every 
soul,  annihilates  fear,  and  ushers  in  the  Age  of 
Reason. 

The  object  of  this  illustrious  man  was  to 
comprehend  the  phenomena  of  physical  objects 
in  their  general  connection,  and  to  represent  na- 
ture as  one  great  whole,  moved  and  animated  by 
internal  forces. 

For  this  purpose  he  turned  his  attention  to 
descriptive  botany,  traversing  distant  lands  and 
mountain  ranges  to  ascertain  with  certainty  the 
geographical  distribution  of  plants.  He  investi- 
gated the  laws  regulating  the  differences  of  tem- 
perature and  climate,  and  the  changes  of  the 
atmosphere.  He  studied  the  formation  of  the 
earth's  crust,  explored  the  deepest  mines,  ascended 
the  highest  mountains,  and  wandered  through  the 
craters  of  extinct  volcanoes. 

He  became  thoroughly  acquainted  with  chem- 
istry, with  astronomy,  with  terrestrial  magnetism ; 
and  as  the  investigation  of  one  subject  leads  to 
all  others,  for  the  reason  that  there  is  a  mutual 
dependence  and  a  necessary   connection   between 


HUMBOLDT.  97 

all    facts,  so    Humboldt  became   acquainted   with 
all  the  known  sciences. 

His  fame  does  not  depend  so  much  upon  his 
discoveries  (although  he  discovered  enough  to 
make  hundreds  of  reputations)  as  upon  his  vast 
and  splendid  generalizations. 

He  was  to  science  what  Shakespeare  was  to 
the  drama. 

He  found,  so  to  speak,  the  world  full  of  un-, 
connected  facts  —  all  portions  of  a  vast  system 
—  parts  of  a  great  machine;  he  discovered  the 
connection  that  each  bears  to  all ;  put  them  to- 
gether, and  demonstrated  beyond  all  contradic- 
tion that  the  earth  is  governed  by  law. 

He  knew  that  to  discover  the  connection  of 
phenomena  is  the  primary  aim  of  all  natural 
investigation.     He  was  infinitely  practical. 

Origin  and  destiny  were  questions  with  which 
he  had  nothing  to  do. 

His  surroundings  made  him  what  he  was. 

In  accordance  with  a  law  not  fully  compre- 
hended, he  was  a  production  of  his  time. 

Great  men  do  not  live  alone  ;  they  are  sur- 
rounded by  the  great ;  they  are  the  instruments 
used  to  accomplish  the  tendencies  of  their  gener- 
ation ;  they  fulfill  the  prophecies  of  their  age. 


98  HUMBOLDT. 

Nearly  all  of  the  scientific  men  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  had  the  same  idea  entertained  by 
Humboldt,  but  most  of  them  in  a  dim  and  con- 
fused way.  There  was,  however,  a  general  belief 
among  the  intelligent  that  the  world  is  governed 
by  law,  and  that  there  really  exists  a  connection 
between  all  facts,  or  that  all  facts  are  simply  the 
different  aspects  of  a  general  fact,  and  that  the 
task  of  science  is  to  discover  this  connection ; 
to  comprehend  this  general  fact  or  to  announce 
the  laws  of  things. 

Germany  was  full  of  thought,  and  her  uni- 
versities swarmed  with  philosophers  and  grand 
thinkers  in  every  department  of  knowledge. 

Humboldt  was  the  friend  and  companion  of 
the  greatest  poets,  historians,  philologists,  artists, 
statesmen,  critics,  and  logicians  of  his  time. 

He  was  the  companion  of  Schiller,  who  be-  \ 
lieved  that  man  would  be  regenerated  through 
the  influence  of  the  Beautiful ;  of  Goethe,  the 
grand  patriarch  of  German  literature ;  of  Wei- 
land,  who  has  been  called  the  Voltaire  of  Ger- 
many ;  of  Herder,  who  wrote  the  outlines  of  a 
philosophical  history  of  man ;  of  Kotzebue,  who 
lived  in  the  world  of  romance ;  of  Schleiermacher, 


HUMBOLDT.  99 

the  pantheist ;  of  Schlegel,  who  gave  to  his  coun- 
trymen the  enchanted  realm  of  Shakespeare ;  of 
the  sublime  Kant,  author  of  the  first  work  pub- 
lished in  Germany  on  Pure  Reason ;  of  Fichte, 
the  infinite  idealist ;  of  Schopenhauer,  the  Euro- 
pean Buddhist  who  followed  the  great  Gautama 
to  the  painless  and  dreamless  Nirwana,  and  of 
hundreds  of  others,  whose  names  are  familiar  to 
and  honored  by  the  scientific  world. 

The  German  mind  had  been  grandly  roused 
from  the  long  lethargy  of  the  dark  ages  of  igno- 
rance, fear,  and  faith.  Guided  by  the  holy  light 
of  reason,  every  department  of  knowledge  was 
investigated,  enriched  and  illustrated. 

Humboldt  breathed  the  atmosphere  of  inves- 
tigation ;  old  ideas  were  abandoned ;  old  creeds, 
hallowed  by  centuries,  were  thrown  aside ; 
thought  became  courageous ;  the  athlete.  Rea- 
son, challenged  to  mortal  combat  the  monsters  of 
superstition. 

No  wonder  that  under  these  influences  Hum- 
boldt formed  the  great  purpose  of  presenting  to 
the  world  a  picture  of  Nature,  in  order  that  men 
might,  for  the  first  time,  behold  the  face  of  their 
Mother. 


100  HUMBOLDT. 

Europe  becoming  too  small  for  his  genius,  he 
visited  the  tropics  in  the  new  world,  where  in  the 
most  circumscribed  limits  he  could  find  the  great- 
est number  of  plants,  of  animals,  and  the  great- 
est diversity  of  climate,  that  he  might  ascertain 
the  laws  governing  the  production  and  distribu- 
tion of  plants,  animals  and  men,  and  the  effects 
of  climate  upon  them  all.  He  sailed  along  the 
gigantic  Amazon  —  the  mysterious  Orinoco  — 
traversed  the  Pampas  —  climbed  the  Andes  until 
he  stood  upon  the  crags  of  Chimborazo,  more 
than  eighteen  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  climbed  on  until  blood  flowed  from 
his  eyes  and  lips.  For  nearly  five  years  he  pur- 
sued his  investigations  in  the  new  world,  accom- 
panied by  the  intrepid  Bonpland.  Nothing  es- 
caped his  attention.  He  was  the  best  intellectual 
organ  of  these  new  revelations  of  science.  He 
was  calm,  reflective  and  eloquent ;  filled  with  a 
sense  of  the  beautiful,  and  the  love  of  truth. 
His  collections  were  immense,  and  valuable  be- 
yond calculation  to  every  science.  He  endured 
innumerable  hardships,  braved  countless  dangers 
in  unknown  and  savage  lands,  and  exhausted  his 
fortune  for  the  advancement  of  true  learning. 


HUMBOLDT.  101 

Upon  his  return  to  Europe  he  was  hailed  as 
the  second  Columbus ;  as  the  scientific  discoverer 
of  America ;  as  the  revealer  of  a  new  world ;  as 
the  great  demonstrator  of  the  sublime  truth,  that 
the  universe  is  governed  by  law. 

I  have  seen  a  picture  of  the  old  man,  sitting 
upon  a  mountain  side  —  above  him  the  eternal 
snow — below,  the  smiling  valley  of  the  tropics, 
filled  with  vine  and  palm;  his  chin  upon  his 
breast,  his  eyes  deep,  thoughtful  and  calm  —  his 
forehead  majestic — grander  than  the  mountain 
upon  which  he  sat  —  crowned  with  the  snow  of 
his  whitened  hair,  he  looked  the  intellectual  auto- 
crat of  this  world. 

Not  satisfied  with  his  discoveries  in  America, 
he  crossed  the  steppes  of  Asia,  the  wastes  of  Si- 
beria, the  great  Ural  range,  adding  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  mankind  at  every  step.  His  energy 
acknowledged  no  obstacle,  his  life  knew  no  leis- 
ure ;  every  day  was  filled  with  labor  and  with 
thought 

He  was  one  of  the  apostles  of  science,  and 
he  served  his  divine  master  with  a  self-sacrificing 
zeal  that  knew  no  abatement ;  with  an  ardor 
that  constantly  increased,  and  with  a  devotion 
unwavering  and  constant  as  the  polar  star. 


102  HUMBOLDT. 

In  order  that  the  people  at  large  might  have 
the  benefit  of  his  numerous  discoveries,  and  his 
vast  knowledge,  he  delivered  at  Berlin  a  course 
of  lectures,  consisting  of  sixty-one  free  addresses, 
upon  the  following  subjects : 

Five,  upon  the  nature  and  limits  of  physical 
geography. 

Three,  were  devoted  to  a  history  of  science. 

Two,  to  inducements  to  a  study  of  natural 
science. 

Sixteen,  on  the  heavens. 

Five,  on  the  form,  density,  latent  heat,  and 
magnetic  power  of  the  earth,  and  to  the  polar 
light. 

Four,  were  on  the  nature  of  the  crust  of  the 
earth,  on  hot  springs  earthquakes,  and  volca- 
noes. 

Two,  on  mountains  and  the  type  of  their 
formation. 

Two,  on  the  form  of  the  earth's  surface,  on 
the  connection  of  continents,  and  the  elevation 
of  soil  over  ravines. 

Three,  on  the  sea  as  a  globular  fluid  sur- 
rounding the  earth. 


HUMBOLDT,  103 

Ten,  on  the  atmosphere  as  an  elastic  fluid 
surrounding  the  earth,  and  on  the  distribution  of 
heat 

One,  on  the  geographic  distribution  of  organ- 
ized matter  in  general. 

Three,  on  the  geography  of  plants. 

Three,  on  the  geography  of  animals,  and 

Two,  on  the  races  of  men. 

These  lectures  are  what  is  known  as  the 
Cosmos,  and  present  a  scientific  picture  of  the 
world  —  of  infinite  diversity  in  unity  —  of  ceaseless 
motion  in  the  eternal  grasp  of  law. 

These  lectures  contain  the  result  of  his  inves- 
tigation, observation,  and  experience  ;  they  furnish 
the  connection  between  phenomena  ;  they  disclose 
some  of  the  changes  through  which  the  earth  has 
passed  in  the  countless  ages ;  the  history  of  vege- 
tation, animals  and  men,  the  effects  of  climate 
upon  individuals  and  nations,  the  relation  we 
sustain  to  other  worlds,  and  demonstrate  that 
all  phenomena,  whether  insignificant  or  grand, 
exist   in   accordance   with   inexorable   law. 

There  are  some  truths,  however,  that  we  never 
should  forget  :  Superstition  has  always  been  the 
relentless  enemy  of  science  ;  faith  has  been  a  hater 


104  HUMBOLDT. 

of  demonstration  ;  hypocrisy  has  been  sincere  only 
in  its  dread  of  truth,  and  all  religions  are  incon- 
sistent with  mental  freedom. 

Since  the  murder  of  Hypatia  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, when  the  polished  blade  of  Greek  philosophy 
was  broken  by  the  club  of  ignorant  Catholicism, 
until  to-day,  superstition  has  detested  every  effort 
of  reason. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  of  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  victory  that  the  church  achieved 
over  philosophy.  For  ages  science  was  utterly 
ignored  ;  thought  was  a  poor  slave ;  an  ignorant 
priest  was  rnaster  of  the  world ;  faith  put  out  the 
eyes  of  the  soul ;  the  reason  was  a  trembling  cow- 
ard ;  the  imagination  was  set  on  fire  of  hell ;  every 
human  feeling  was  sought  to  be  suppressed ; 
love  was  considered  infinitely  sinful ;  pleasure 
was  the  road  to  eternal  fire,  and  God  was  sup- 
posed to  be  happy  only  when  his  children  were 
miserable.  The  world  was  governed  by  an  Al- 
mighty's whim ;  prayers  could  change  the  order 
of  things,  halt  the  grand  procession  of  nature, 
could  produce  rain,  avert  pestilence,  famine  and 
death  in  all  its  forms.  There  was  no  idea  of 
the   certain ;    all   depended   upon   divine   pleasure 


HUMBOLDT,  105 

—  or  displeasure  rather ;  heaven  was  full  of  in- 
consistent malevolence,  and  earth  of  ignorance. 
Everything  was  done  to  appease  the  divine 
wrath ;  every  public  calamity  was  caused  by  the 
sins  of  the  people ;  by  a  failure  to  pay  tithes, 
or  for  having,  even  in  secret,  felt  a  disrespect 
for  a  priest.  To  the  poor  multitude,  the  earth 
was  a  kind  of  enchanted  forest,  full  of  demons 
ready  to  devour,  and  theological  serpents  lurk- 
ing with  infinite  power  to  fascinate  and  torture 
the  unhappy  and  impotent  soul.  Life  to  them 
was  a  dim  and  mysterious  labyrinth,  in  which 
they  wandered  weary,  and  lost,  guided  by 
priests  as  bewildered  as  themselves,  without 
knowing  that  at  every  step  the  Ariadne  of  rea- 
son offered  them  the  long  lost  clue. 

The  very  heavens  were  full  of  death ;  the 
lightning  was  regarded  as  the  glittering  ven- 
geance of  God,  and  the  earth  was  thick  with 
snares  for  the  unwary  feet  of  man.  The  soul 
was  supposed  to  be  crowded  with  the  wild 
beasts  of  desire ;  the  heart  to  be  totally  cor- 
rupt, prompting  only  to  crime ;  virtues  were 
regarded  as  deadly  sins  in  disguise ;  there  was 
a    continual    warfare   being   waged    between    the 


106  HUMBOLDT. 

Deity  and  the  Devil,  for  the  possession  of 
every  soul ;  the  latter  generally  being  consid- 
ered victorious.  The  flood,  the  tornado,  the 
volcano,  were  all  evidences  of  the  displeasure 
of  heaven,  and  the  sinfulness  of  man.  The 
blight  that  withered,  the  frost  that  blackened, 
the  earthquake  that  devoured,  were  the  mes- 
sengers  of  the   Creator. 

The  world  was  governed  by  Fear. 

Against  all  the  evils  of  nature,  there  was 
known  only  the  defence  of  prayer,  of  fasting,  of 
credulity,  and  devotion.  Man  in  his  helplessness 
endeavored  to  soften  the  heart  of  God.  The  faces 
of  the  multitude  were  blanched  with  fear,  and 
wet  with  tears ;  they  were  the  prey  of  hypo- 
crites, kings  and  priests. 

My  heart  bleeds  when  I  contemplate  the  suf- 
ferings endured  by  the  millions  now  dead ;  of 
those  who  lived  when  the  world  appeared  to 
be  insane ;  when  the  heavens  were  filled  with  an 
infinite  Horror  who  snatched  babes  with  dim- 
pled hands  and  rosy  cheeks  from  the  white 
breasts  of  mothers,  and  dashed  them  into  an 
abyss  of  eternal  flame. 

Slowly,  beautifully,  like  the  coming  of  the 
dawn,   came   the  grand  truth,  that   the    universe 


HUMBOLDT.  107 

is  governed  by  law ;  that  disease  fastens  itself 
upon  the  good  and  upon  the  bad ;  that  the  tor- 
nado cannot  be  stopped  by  counting  beads ;  that 
the  rushing  lava  pauses  not  for  bended  knees, 
the  lightning  for  clasped  and  uplifted  hands,  nor 
the  cruel  waves  of  the  sea  for  prayer ;  that  pay- 
ing tithes  causes,  rather  than  prevents  famine ; 
that  pleasure  is  not  sin ;  that  happiness  is  the 
only  good ;  that  demons  and  gods  exist  only  in 
the  imagination ;  that  faith  is  a  lullaby  sung  to 
put  the  soul  to  sleep ;  that  devotion  is  a  bribe 
that  fear  offers  to  supposed  power ;  that  offering 
rewards  in  another  world  for  obedience  in  this, 
is  simply  buying  a  soul  on  credit ;  that  knowl- 
edge consists  in  ascertaining  the  laws  of  nature, 
and  that  wisdom  is  the  science  of  happiness. 
Slowly,  grandly,  beautifully,  these  truths  are  dawn- 
ing upon  mankind. 

From  Copernicus  we  learned  that  this  earth 
is  only  a  grain  of  sand  on  the  infinite  shore  of 
the  universe ;  that  everywhere  we  are  surrounded 
by  shining  worlds  vastly  greater  than  our  own, 
all  moving  and  existing  in  accordance  with  law. 
True,  the  earth  began  to  grow  small,  but  man 
began  to  grow  great 


108  HUMBOLDT. 

The  moment  the  fact  was  established  that 
other  worlds  are  governed  by  law,  it  was  only 
natural  to  conclude  that  our  little  world  was  also 
under  its  dominion.  The  old  theological  method 
of  accounting  for  physical  phenomena  by  the 
pleasure  and  displeasure  of  the  Deity  was,  by 
the  intellectual,  abandoned.  They  found  that 
disease,  death,  life,  thought,  heat,  cold,  the  sea- 
sons, the  winds,  the  dreams  of  man,  the  instinct 
of  animals, — in  short,  that  all  physical  and  mental 
phenomena  are  governed  by  law,  absolute,  eter- 
nal and  inexorable. 

Let  it  be  understood  that  by  the  term  Law 
is  meant  the  same  invariable  relations  of  suc- 
cession and  resemblance  predicated  of  all  facts 
springing  from  like  conditions.  Law  is  a  fact  — 
not  a  cause.  It  is  a  fact,  that  like  conditions 
produce  like  results :  this  fact  is  Law.  When 
we  say  that  the  universe  is  governed  by  law,  we 
mean  that  this  fact,  called  law,  is  incapable  of 
change ;  that  it  is,  has  been,  and  forever  will  be, 
the  same  inexorable,  immutable  Fact,  insepara- 
ble from  all  phenomena.  Law,  in  this  sense,  was 
not  enacted  or  made.  It  could  not  have  been 
otherwise  than  as  it  is.  That  which  necessarily 
exists  has  no  creator. 


HUMBOLDT.  109 

Only  a  few  years  ago  this  earth  was  consid- 
ered the  real  center  of  the  universe ;  all  the 
stars  were  supposed  to  revolve  around  this  insig- 
nificant atom.  The  German  mind,  more  than 
any  other,  has  done  away  with  this,  piece  of  ego- 
tism. Purbach  and  Mullerus,  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, contributed  most  to  the  advancement  of 
astronomy  in  their  day.  To  the  latter,  the  world 
is  indebted  for  the  introduction  of  decimal  frac- 
tions, which  completed  our  arithmetical  notation, 
and  formed  the  second  of  the  three  steps  by 
which,  in  modern  times,  the  science  of  numbers 
has  been  so  greatly  improved;  and  yet,  both  of 
these  men  believed  in  the  most  childish  absurdi- 
ties, at  least  in  enough  of  them,  to  die  without 
their  orthodoxy  having  ever  been  suspected. 

Next  came  the  great  Copernicus,  and  he 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  heroic  thinkers  of 
his  time,  who  had  the  courage  and  the  mental 
strength  to  break  the  chains  of  prejudice,  custom, 
and  authority,  and  to  establish  truth  on  the  basis 
of  experience,  observation  and  reason.  He  re- 
moved the  earth,  so  to  speak,  from  the  centre 
of  the  universe,  and  ascribed  to  it  a  two-fold 
motion,  and  demonstrated  the  true  position 
which  it  occupies  in_the  ^olar  system. 


110  HUMBOLDT. 

At  his  bidding  the  earth  began  to  revolve. 
At  the  command  of  his  genius  it  commenced  its 
grand  flight  mid  the  eternal  constellations  round 
the  sun. 

For  fifty  years  his  discoveries  were  disre- 
garded. All  at  once,  by  the  exertions  of  Galileo, 
they  were  kindled  into  so  grand  a  conflagration 
as  to  consume  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle,  to 
alarm  the  hierarchy  of  Rome,  and  to  threaten 
the  existence  of  every  opinion  not  founded  uoon 
experience,  observation,  and  reason. 

The  earth  was  no  longer  considered  a  uni- 
verse, governed  by  the  caprices  of  some  revenge- 
ful Deity,  who  had  made  the  stars  out  of  what 
he  had  left  after  completing  the  world,  and  had 
stuck  them  in  the  sky  simply  to  adorn  the  night 

I  have  said  this  much  concerning  astronomy 
because  it  was  the  first  splendid  step  forward ! 
The  first  sublime  blow  that  shattered  the  lance 
and  shivered  the  shield  of  superstition ;  the  first 
real  help  that  man  received  from  heaven ;  because 
it  was  the  first  great  lever  placed  beneath  th^ 
altar  of  a  false  religion ;  the  first  revelation  of 
the  infinite  to  man ;  the  first  authoritative  declar- 
ation, that  the  universe  is  governed  by  law ;  the 


HUMBOLDT.  Ill 

first  science  that  gave  the  lie  direct  to  the  cos- 
mogony of  barbarism,  and  because  it  is  the  sub- 
limest  victory  that  the  reason  has  achieved. 

In  speaking  of  astronomy,  I  have  confined 
myself  to  the  discoveries  made  since  the  revival 
of  learning.  Long  ago,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges,  ages  before  Copernicus  lived,  Aryabhatta 
taught  that  the  earth  is  a  sphere,  and  revolves 
on  its  own  axis.  This,  however,  does  not  de- 
tract from  the  glory  of  the  great  German.  The 
discovery  of  the  Hindu  had  been  lost  in  the 
midnight  of  Europe  —  in  the  age  of  faith,  and 
Copernicus  was  as  much  a  discoverer  as  though 
Aryabhatta  had  never  lived. 

In  this  short  address  there  is  no  time  to 
speak  of  other  sciences,  and  to  point  out  the  par- 
ticular evidence  furnished  by  each,  to  establish 
the  dominion  of  law,  nor  to  more  than  mention 
the  name  of  Descartes,  the  first  who  undertook 
to  give  an  explanation  of  the  celestial  motions, 
or  who  formed  the  vast  and  philosophic  concep- 
tion of  reducing  all  the  phenomena  of  the  uni- 
verse to  the  same  law ;  of  Montaigne,  one  of  the 
heroes  of  common  sense ;  of  Galvani,  whose  ex- 
periments  gave   the   telegraph  to  the  world ;  of 


112  HUMBOLDT. 

Voltaire,  who  contributed  more  than  any  other 
of  the  sons  of  men  to  the  destruction  of  religious 
intolerance ;  of  August  Comte,  whose  genius 
erected  to  itself  a  monument  that  still  touches 
the  stars ;  of  Guttenberg,  Watt,  Stephenson,  Ark- 
wright,  all  soldiers  of  science,  in  the  grand  army 
of  the  dead  kings. 

The  glory  of  science  is,  that  it  is  freeing  the 
soul  —  breaking  the  mental  manacles  —  getting 
the  brain  out  of  bondage  —  giving  courage  to 
thought  —  filling  the  world  with  mercy,  justice, 
and  joy. 

Science  found  agriculture  plowing  with  a  stick 
• —  reaping  with  a  sickle  —  commerce  at  the  mercy 
of  the  treacherous  waves  and  the  inconstant 
winds  —  a  world  without  books  —  without  schools 
—  man  denying  the  authority  of  reason,  em- 
ploying his  ingenuity  in  the  manufacture  of  in- 
struments of  torture,  in  building  inquisitions  and 
cathedrals.  It  found  the  land  filled  with  mali- 
cious monks  —  with  persecuting  Protestants,  and 
the  burners  of  men.  It  found  a  world  full  of 
fear ;  ignorance  upon  its  knees ;  credulity  the 
greatest  virtue ;  women  treated  like  beasts  of 
burden;   cruelty  the    only  means  of  reformation. 


HUMBOLDT.  113 

It  found  the  world  at  the  mercy  of  disease  and 
famine ;  men  trying  to  read  their  fates  in  the 
stars,  and  to  tell  their  fortunes  by  signs  and 
wonders ;  generals  thinking  to  conquer  their  ene^ 
mies  by  making  the  sign  of  the  cross,  or  by  tell- 
ing a  rosary.  It  found  all  history  full  of  petty 
and  ridiculous  falsehood,  and  the  Almighty  was 
supposed  to  spend  most  of  his  time  turning  sticks 
into  snakes,  drowning  boys  for  swimming  on 
Sunday,  and  killing  little  children  for  the  purpose 
of  converting  their  parents.  It  found  the  earth 
filled  with  slaves  and  tyrants,  the  people  in  all 
countries  downtrodden,  half  naked,  half  starved, 
without  hope,  and  without  reason  in  the  world. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  man  when  the 
morning  of  science  dawned  upon  his  brain,  and 
before  he  had  heard  the  sublime  declaration  that 
the  universe  is  governed  by  law. 

For  the  change  that  has  taken  place  we  are 
indebted  solely  to  science  —  the  only  lever  capa- 
ble of  raising  mankind.  Abject  faith  is  barba- 
rism ;  reason  is  civilization.  To  obey  is  slavish ; 
to  act  from  a  sense  of  obligation  perceived  by 
the  reason,  is  noble.  Ignorance  worships  mys- 
tery; Reason  explains  it:  the  one  grovels,  the 
other  soars. 


114  HUMBOLDT. 

No  wonder  that  fable  is  the  enemy  of  knowl- 
edge. A  man  with  a  false  diamond  shuns  the 
society  of  lapidaries,  and  it  is  upon  this  principle 
that  superstition  abhors  science. 

In  all  ages  the  people  have  honored  those 
who  dishonored  them.  They  have  worshiped 
their  destroyers  ;  they  have  canonized  the  most 
gigantic  liars,  and  buried  the  great  thieves  in 
marble  and  gold.  Under  the  loftiest  monuments 
sleeps  the  dust  of  murder. 

Imposture  has  always  worn  a  crown. 

The  world  is  beginning  to  change  because 
the  people  are  beginning  to  think.  To  think  is 
to  advance.  Everywhere  the  great  minds  are 
investigating  the  creeds  and  the  superstitions  of 
men  —  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and  the  laws 
of  things.  At  the  head  of  this  great  army  of 
investigators  stood  Humboldt  —  the  serene  lead- 
er of  an  intellectual  host  —  a  king  by  the  suf- 
frage of  Science,  and  the  divine  right  of  Genius. 

And  to-day  we  are  not  honoring  some  butch- 
er called  a  soldier — some  wily  politician  called 
a  statesman  —  some  robber  called  a  king,  nor 
some  malicious  metaphysician  called  a  saint 
We   are   honoring   the   grand    Humboldt,   whose 


HUMBOLDT.  116 

victories  were  all  achieved  in  the  arena  of 
thought ;  who  destroyed  prejudice,  ignorance  and 
error  —  not  men;  who  shed  light  —  not  blood, 
and  who  contributed  to  the  knowledge,  the 
wealth,  and  the  happiness  of  all  mankind. 

His  life  was  pure,  his  aims  lofty,  his  learning 
varied  and    profound,  and    his  achievements  vast 

We  honor  him  because  he  has  ennobled  our 
race,  because  he  has  contributed  as  much  as  any 
man  living  or  dead  to  the  real  prosperity  of  the 
world.  We  honor  him  because  he  honored  us — 
because  he  labored  for  others  —  because  he  was 
the  most  learned  man  of  the  most  learned  na- 
tion—  because  he  left  a  legacy  of  glory  to  every 
human  being.  For  these  reasons  he  is  honored 
throughout  the  world.  Millions  are  doing  hom- 
age to  his  genius  at  this  moment,  and  millions 
are  pronouncing  his  name  with  reverence  and 
recounting  what  he  accomplished. 

We  associate  the  name  of  Humboldt  with 
oceans,  continents,  mountains,  and  volcanoes  — 
with  the  great  palms  —  the  wide  deserts  —  the 
snow-lipped  craters  of  the  Andes  —  with  prime- 
val forests  and  European  capitals  —  with  wilder- 
nesses    and     universities —  with     savages     and 


116  HUMBOLDT. 

savans  —  with  the  lonely  rivers  of  unpeopled 
wastes  —  with  peaks  and  pampas,  and  steppes, 
and  cliffs  and  crags  —  with  the  progress  of  the 
world  —  with  every  science  known  to  man,  and 
with  every  star  glittering  in  the  immensity  of 
space. 

Humboldt  adopted  none  of  the  soul-shrink- 
ing creeds  of  his  day  ;  wasted  none  of  his  time 
in  the  stupidities,  inanities  and  contradictions  of 
theological  metaphysics ;  he  did  not  endeavor  to 
harmonize  the  astronomy  and  geology  of  a  bar- 
barous people  with  the  science  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Never,  for  one  moment,  did  he  aban- 
don the  sublime  standard  of  truth ;  he  investi- 
gated, he  studied,  he  thought,  he  separated  the 
gold  from  the  dross  in  the  crucible  of  his  grand 
brain.  He  was  never  found  on  his  knees  before 
the  altar  of  superstition.  He  stood  erect  by  the 
grand  tranquil  column  of  Reason.  He  was  an 
admirer,  a  lover,  an  adorer  of  Nature,  and  at  the 
age  of  ninety,  bowed  by  the  weight  of  nearly  a 
century,  covered  with  the  insignia  of  honor, 
loved  by  a  nation,  respected  by  a  world,  with 
kings  for  his  servants,  he  laid  his  weary  head 
upon   her  bosom  —  upon   the  bosom  of  the  uni- 


HUMBOLDT.  117 

versal     Mother  —  and     with     her     loving    arms 
around  him,  sank  into  that  slumber  called  Death. 

History  added  another  name  to  the  starry 
scroll  of  the  immortals. 

The  world  is  his  monument ;  upon  the  eter- 
nal granite  of  her  hills  he  inscribed  his  name, 
and  there  upon  everlasting  stone  his  genius 
wrote  this,  the  sublimest  of  truths : 

"  The  Universe  is  Governed   by  Law  !" 


THOMAS  PAINE. 


THOMAS  PAINE. 


With  His  Name  Left  Out,  the  History  of  Liberty 
Cannot  be  Written. 

TO  speak  the  praises  of  the  brave  and  thought- 
ful dead,  is  to  me  a  labor  of  gratitude 
and  love. 

Through  all  the  centuries  gone,  the  mind  of 
man  has  been  beleaguered  by  the  mailed  hosts 
of  superstition.  Slowly  and  painfully  has  ad- 
vanced the  army  of  deliverance.  Hated  by  those 
they  wished  to  rescue,  despised  by  those  they 
were  dying  to  save,  these  grand  soldiers,  these 
immortal  deliverers,  have  fought  without  thanks, 
labored  without  applause,  suffered  without  pity, 
and  they  have  died  execrated  and  abhorred. 
For  the  good  of  mankind  they  accepted  isolation, 
poverty,  and  calumny.  They  gave  up  all,  sacri- 
ficed all,  lost  all  but  truth  and  self-respect. 

One  of  the  bravest  soldiers  in  this  army  was 

(121> 


122  THOMAS  FAINE. 

Thomas  Paine ;  and  for  one,  I  feel  indebted  to 
him  for  the  liberty  we  are  enjoying  this  day. 
Born  among  the  poor,  where  children  are  bur- 
dens ;  in  a  country  where  real  liberty  was  un- 
known ;  where  the  privileges  of  class  were  guard- 
ed with  infinite  jealousy,  and  the  rights  of  the 
individual  trampled  beneath  the  feet  of  priests 
and  nobles ;  where  to  advocate  justice  was  trea- 
son ;  where  intellectual  freedom  was  Infidelity, 
it  is  wonderful  that  the  idea  of  true  liberty  ever 
entered  his  brain. 

Poverty  was  his  mother — Necessity  his  mas- 
ter. 

He  had  more  brains  than  books ;  more  sense 
fchan  education ;  more  courage  than  politeness ; 
more  strength  than  polish.  He  had  no  venera- 
tion for  old  mistakes  —  no  admiration  for  ancient 
lies.  He  loved  the  truth  for  the  truth's  sake,  and 
for  man's  sake.  He  saw  oppression  on  every 
hand ;  injustice  everywhere ;  hypocrisy  at  the 
altar,  venality  on  the  bench,  tyranny  on  the 
throne ;  and  with  a  splendid  courage  he  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  weak  against  the  strong  —  of 
the  enslaved  many  against  the  titled  few. 

In  England  he  was  nothing.     He  belonged  to 


THOMAS  PAINE.  123 

the  lower  classes.  There  was  no  avenue  open  for 
him.  The  people  hugged  their  chains,  and  the 
whole  power  of  the  government  was  ready  to 
crush  any  man  who  endeavored  to  strike  a  blow 
for  the  right. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  Thomas  Paine  left 
England  for  America,  with  the  high  hope  of 
being  instrumental  in  the  establishment  of  a  free 
government  In  his  own  country  he  could  ac- 
complish nothing.  Those  two  vultures  —  Church 
and  State  —  were  ready  to  tear  in  pieces  and 
devour  the  heart  of  any  one  who  might  deny 
their  divine  right  to  enslave  the  world. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  this  country,  he  found 
himself  possessed  of  a  letter  of  introduction, 
signed  by  another  Infidel,  the  illustrious  Franklin. 
This,  and  his  native  genius,  constituted  his  entire 
capital;  and  he  needed  no  more.  He  found  the 
colonies  clamoring  for  justice ;  whining  about 
their  grievances ;  upon  their  knees  at  the  foot 
of  the  throne,  imploring  that  mixture  of  idiocy 
and  insanity,  George  the  III.,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  for  a  restoration  of  their  ancient  privileges. 
They  were  not  endeavoring  to  become  free  men, 
but  were  trying  to  soften  the  heart  of  their  mas- 


124  THOMAS  PAINE. 

ter.  They  were  perfectly  willing  to  make  brick 
if  Pharaoh  would  furnish  the  straw.  The  colo- 
nists wished  for,  hoped  for,  and  prayed  for  recon- 
ciliatioa     They  did  not  dream  of  independence. 

Paine  gave  to  the  world  his  "  Common  Sense." 
It  was  the  first  argument  for  separation,  the  first 
assault  upon  the  British  form  of  government,  the 
first  blow  for  a  republic,  and  it  aroused  our  fathers 
like  a  trumpet's  blast 

He  was  the  first  to  perceive  the  destiny  of 
the  New  World. 

No  other  pamphlet  ever  accomplished  such 
wonderful  results.  It  was  filled  with  argument, 
reason,  persuasion,  and  unanswerable  logic.  It 
opened  a  new  world.  It  filled  the  present  with 
hope  and  the  future  with  honor.  Everywhere  the 
people  responded,  and  in  a  few  months  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  declared  the  colonies  free  and 
independent  States. 

A  new  nation  was  born. 

It  is  simple  justice  to  say  that  Paine  did  more 
to  cause  the  Declaration  of  Independence  than 
any  other  man.  Neither  should  it  be  forgotten 
that  his  attacks  upon  Great  Britain  were  also 
attacks  upon  monarchy;  and  while  he  convinced 


THOMAS  PAINE.  125 

the  people  that  the  colonies  ought  to  separate 
from  the  mother  country,  he  also  proved  to  them 
that  a  free  government  is  the  best  that  can  be 
instituted  among  men. 

In  my  judgment,  Thomas  Paine  was  the 
best  political  writer  that  ever  lived.  "  What  he 
wrote  was  pure  nature,  and  his  soul  and  his  pen 
ever  went  together."  Ceremony,  pageantry,  and 
all  the  paraphernalia  of  power,  had  no  effect 
upon  him.  He  examined  into  the  why  and 
wherefore  of  things.  He  was  perfectly  radical 
in  his  mode  of  thought.  Nothing  short  of  the 
bed-rock  satisfied  him.  His  enthusiasm  for 
what  he  believed  to  be  right  knew  no  bounds. 
During  all  the  dark  scenes  of  the  Revolution, 
never  for  one  moment  did  he  despair.  Year 
after  year  his  brave  words  were  ringing  through 
the  land,  and  by  the  bivouac  fires  the  weary 
soldiers  read  the  inspiring  words  of  "  Common 
Sense,"  filled  with  ideas  sharper  than  their 
swords,  and  consecrated  themselves  anew  to  the 
cause  of  Freedom. 

Paine  was  not  content  with  having  aroused 
the  spirit  of  independence,  but  he  gave  every 
energy  of  his  soul  to  keep  that  spirit  alive.     He 


126  THOMAS  PAINE. 

was  with  the  army.  He  shared  its  defeats,  its 
dangers,  and  its  glory.  When  the  situation 
became  desperate,  when  gloom  settled  upon  all, 
he  gave  them  the  "  Crisis."  It  was  a  cloud  by 
day  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  leading  the 
way  to  freedom,  honor,  and  glory.  He  shouted 
to  them,  "  These  are  the  times  that  try  men's 
souls.  The  summer  soldier,  and  the  sunshine 
patriot,  will,  in  this  crisis,  shrink  from  the  ser- 
vice of  his  country  ;  but  he  that  stands  it  now 
deserves  the  love  and  thanks  of  man  and  wo- 
man." 

To  those  who  wished  to  put  the  war  off  to 
some  future  day,  with  a  lofty  and  touching  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  he  said :  "  Every  generous  pa- 
rent should  say,  '  If  there  must  be  war  let  it 
be  in  my  day,  that  my  child  may  have  peace.*" 
To  the  cry  that  Americans  were  rebels,  he  re- 
plied :  "  He  that  rebels  against  reason  is  a  real 
rebel ;  but  he  that  in  defence  of  reason  rebels 
against  tyranny,  has  a  better  title  to  '  Defender 
of  the  Faith '  than  George  the  Third." 

Some  said  it  was  not  to  the  interest  of  the 
colonies  to  be  free.  Paine  answered  this  by 
saying,  "  To  know  whether  it  be  the  interest  of 


THOMAS  PAINE.  127 

the  continent  to  be  independent,  we  need  ask 
only  this  simple,  easy  question:  'Is  it  the  in- 
terest of  a  man  to  be  a  boy  all  his  life?'  "  He 
found  many  who  would  listen  to  nothing,  and 
to  them  he  said,  "That  to  argue  with  a  man 
who  has  renounced  his  reason  is  like  giving 
medicine  to  the  dead."  This  sentiment  ought 
to  adorn  the  walls  of  every  orthodox  church. 
There  is  a  world  of  political  wisdom  in  this: 
England  lost  her  liberty  in  a  long  chain  of 
right  reasoning  from  wrong  principles " ;  and 
there  is  real  discrimination  in  saying,  "The 
Greeks  and  Romans  were  strongly  possessed  of 
the  spirit  of  liberty,  but  not  the  principles,  for  at 
the  time  that  they  were  determined  not  to  be 
slaves  themselves,  they  employed  their  power  to 
enslave  the  rest  of  mankind." 

In  his  letter  to  the  British  people,  in  which 
he  tried  to  convince  them  that  war  was  not  to 
their  interest,  occurs  the  following  passage  brim- 
ful of  common  sense:  "War  never  can  be  the 
interest  of  a  trading  nation  any  more  than  quar- 
reling can  be  profitable  to  a  man  in  business. 
But  to  make  war  with  those  who  trade  with  us 
is  like  setting  a  bull-dog  upon  a  customer  at  the 
shop-door." 


128  THOMAS  FAINE. 

The  writings  of  Paine  fairly  glitter  with  sim- 
ple, compact,  logical  statements,  that  carry  con- 
viction to  the  dullest  and  most  prejudiced.  He 
had  the  happiest  possible  way  of  putting  the 
case;  in  asking  questions  in  such  a  way  that 
they  answer  themselves,  and  in  stating  his 
premises  so  clearly  that  the  deduction  could 
not  be   avoided. 

Day  and  night  he  labored  for  America; 
month  after  month,  year  after  year,  he  gave 
himself  to  the  Great  Cause,  until  there  was  "  a 
government  of  the  people  and  for  the  people," 
and  until  the  banner  of  the  stars  floated  over 
a  continent  redeemed,  and  consecrated  to  the 
happiness  of  mankind. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  no  one  stood 
higher  in  America  than  Thomas  Paine.  The 
best,  the  wisest,  the  most  patriotic,  were  his 
friends  and  admirers ;  and  had  he  been  thinking 
only  of  his  own  good  he  might  have  rested 
from  his  toils  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
life  in  comfort  and  in  ease.  He  could  have  been 
what  the  world  is  pleased  to  call  "  respectable." 
He  could  have  died  surrounded  by  clergymen, 
warriors  and  statesmen.     At  his  death  there  would 


THOMAS  FAINE.  129 

have  been  an  imposing  funeral,  miles  of  carriages, 
civic  societies,  salvos  of  artillery,  a  nation  in 
mourning,  and,  above  all,  a  splendid  monument 
covered  with  lies. 

He  chose  rather  to  benefit  mankind. 

At  that  time  the  seeds  sown  by  the  great 
Infidels  were  beginning  to  bear  fruit  in  France. 
The  people  were  beginning  to  think. 

The  Eighteenth  Century  was  crowning  its 
gray  hairs  with  the  wreath  of  Progress. 

On  every  hand  Science  was  bearing  testimony 
against  the  Church.  Voltaire  had  filled  Europe 
with  light ;  D'Holbach  was  giving  to  the  elite  of 
Paris  the  principles  contained  in  his  "  System  of 
Nature."  The  Encyclopedists  had  attacked  su- 
perstition with  information  for  the  masses.  The 
foundation  of  things  began  to  be  examined.  A 
few  had  the  courage  to  keep  their  shoes  on  and 
let  the  bush  burn.  Miracles  began  to  get  scarce. 
Everywhere  the  people  began  to  inquire.  Amer- 
ica had  set  an  example  to  the  world.  The  word 
Liberty  was  in  the  mouths  of  men,  and  they 
began  to  wipe  the  dust  from  their  knees. 

The  dawn  of  a  new  day  had  appeared. 
\  Thomas  Paine  went  to  France.     Into  the  new 


130  THOMAS  PAINE. 

movement  he  threw  all  his  energies.  His  fame 
had  gone  before  him,  and  he  was  welcomed  as  a 
friend  of  the  human  race,  and  as  a  champion  of 
free  government 

He  had  never  relinquished  his  intention  of 
pointing  out  to  his  countrymen  the  defects,  ab- 
surdities and  abuses  of  the  English  government 
For  this  purpose  he  composed  and  published  his 
greatest  political  work,  "  The  Rights  of  Man." 
This  work  should  be  read  by  every  man  and 
woman.  It  is  concise,  accurate,  natural,  convinc- 
ing, and  unanswerable.  It  shows  great  thought ; 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  various  forms  of 
government ;  deep  insight  into  the  very  springs 
of  human  action,  and  a  courage  that  compels 
respect  and  admiration.  The  most  difficult  polit- 
ical problems  are  solved  in  a  few  sentences.  The 
venerable  arguments  in  favor  of  wrong  are  re- 
futed with  a  question  —  answered  with  a  word. 
For  forcible  illustration,  apt  comparison,  accuracy 
and  clearness  of  statement,  and  absolute  thor- 
oughness, it  has  never  been  excelled. 

The  fears  of  the  administration  were  aroused, 
and  Paine  was  prosecuted  for  libel  and  found 
guilty ;  and  yet  there  is  not  a   sentiment   in   the 


THOMAS  PAINE.  131 

entire  work  that  will  not  challenge  the  admira- 
tion of  every  civilized  man.  It  is  a  magazine  of 
political  wisdom,  an  arsenal  of  ideas,  and  an 
honor,  not  only  to  Thomas  Paine,  but  to  human 
nature  itself.  It  could  have  been  written  only 
by  the  man  who  had  the  generosity,  the  exalted 
patriotism,  the  goodness  to  say,  "The  world  is 
my  country,  and  to  do  good  my  religion." 

There  is  in  all  the  utterances  of  the  world  no 
grander,  no  sublimer  sentiment.  There  is  no 
creed  that  can  be  compared  with  it  for  a  mo- 
ment. It  should  be  wrought  in  gold,  adorned 
with  jewels,  and  impressed  upon  every  human 
heart:  /'The  world  is  my  country,  and  to  do 
good  my  religion." 

In  1792,  Paine  was  elected  by  the  department 
of  Calais  as  their  representative  in  the  National 
Assembly.  So  great  was  his  popularity  in  France 
that  he  was  selected  about  the  same  time  by  the 
people  of  no  less  than  four  departments. 

Upon  taking  his  place  in  the  Assembly  he 
was  appointed  as  one  of  a  committee  to  draft  a 
constitution  for  France.  Had  the  French  people 
taken  the  advice  of  Thomas  Paine  there  would 
have  been  no   * '  reign  of  terror. "     The  streets  of 


132  THOMAS  PAINE. 

Paris  would  not  haVe  been  filled  with  blood. 
The  Revolution  would  have  been  the  grandest 
success  of  the  world.  The  truth  is  that  Paine 
was  too  conservative  to  suit  the  leaders  of  the 
French  Revolution.  They,  to  a  great  extent,  were 
carried  away  by  hatred,  and  a  desire  to  destroy. 
They  had  suffered  so  long,  they  had  borne  so 
much,  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  be  mod- 
erate in  the  hour  of  victory. 

Besides  all  this,  the  French  people  had  been 
so  robbed  by  the  government,  so  degraded  by 
the  church,  that  they  were  not  fit  material  with 
which  to  construct  a  republic.  Many  of  the  lead- 
ers longed  to  establish  a  beneficent  and  just  gov- 
ernment, but  the  people  asked  for  revenge. 

Paine  was  filled  with  a  real  love  for  mankind. 
His  philanthropy  was  boundless.  He  wished  to 
destroy  monarchy  —  not  the  monarch.  He  voted 
for  the  destruction  of  tyranny,  and  against  the 
death  of  the  king.  He  wished  to  establish  a  gov- 
ernment on  a  new  basis ;  one  that  would  forget 
the  past ;  one  that  would  give  privileges  to  none, 
and  protection  to  all. 

In  the  Assembly,  where  nearly  all  were  de- 
manding the   execution   of    the   king  —  where   to 


THOMAS  PAINE.  133 

differ  from  the  majority  was  to  be  suspected,  and, 
where  to  be  suspected  was  almost  certain  death 
Thomas  Paine  had  the  courage,  the  goodness 
and  the  justice  to  vote  against  death.  To  vote 
against  the  execution  of  the  king  was  a  vote 
against  his  own  life.  This  was  the  sublimity  of 
devotion  to  principle.  For  this  he  was  arrested, 
imprisoned,  and  doomed  to  death. 

Search  the  records  of  the  world  and  you  will 
find  but  few  sublimer  acts  than  that  of  Thomas 
Paine  voting  against  the  king's  death.  He,  the 
hater  of  despotism,  the  abhorrer  of  monarchy, 
the  champion  of  the  rights  of  man,  the  repub- 
lican, accepting  death  to  save  the  life  of  a  de- 
posed tyrant  —  of  a  throneless  king.  This  was 
the  last  grand  act  of  his  political  life  —  the 
sublime  conclusion  of  his  political  career. 

All  his  life  he  had  been  the  disinterested 
friend  of  man.  He  had  labored  —  not  for  money, 
not  for  fame,  but  for  the  general  good.  He  had 
aspired  to  no  office ;  had  asked  no  recognition 
of  his  services,  but  had  ever  been  content  to 
labor  as  a  common  soldier  in  the  army  of  Prog- 
ress. Confining  his  efforts  to  no  country,  looking 
upon  the  world  as  his  field  of  action,  filled  with 


134  •  THOMAS  PAINE. 

a  genuine  love  for  the  right,  he  found  himself 
imprisoned  by  the  very  people  he  had  striven 
to  save. 

Had  his  enemies  succeeded  in  bringing  him 
to  the  block,  he  would  have  escaped  the  calum- 
nies and  the  hatred  of  the  Christian  world.  In 
this  country,  at  least,  he  would  have  ranked  with 
the  proudest  names.  On  the  anniversary  of  the 
Declaration  his  name  would  have  been  upon  the 
lips  of  all  the  orators,  and  his  memory  in  the 
hearts  of  all  the  people. 

Thomas  Paine  had  not  finished  his  career. 

He  had  spent  his  life  thus  far  in  destroying 
the  power  of  kings,  and  now  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  the  priests.  He  knew  that  every  abuse 
had  been  embalmed  in  Scripture  —  that  every 
outrage  was  in  partnership  with  some  holy  text. 
He  knew  that  the  throne  skulked  behind  the 
altar,  and  both  behind  a  pretended  revelation 
from  God.  By  this  time  he  had  found  that  it 
was  of  little  use  to  free  the  body  and  leave  the 
mind  in  chains.  He  had  explored  the  founda- 
tions of  despotism,  and  had  found  them  infinitely 
rotten.  He  had  dug  under  the  throne,  and  it 
occurred  to  him  that  he  would  take  a  look  behind 
the  altar. 


THOMAS  PAINE.  135 

The  result  of  his  investigations  was  given  to 
the  world  in  the  "Age  of  Reason."  From  the 
moment  of  its  publication  he  became  infamous. 
He  was  calumniated  beyond  measure.  To  slan- 
der him  was  to  secure  the  thanks  of  the  church. 
All  his  services  were  instantly  forgotten,  dispar- 
aged or  denied.  He  was  shunned  as  though  he 
had  been  a  pestilence.  Most  of  his  old  friends 
forsook  him.  He  was  regarded  as  a  moral  plague, 
and  at  the  bare  mention  of  his  name  the  bloody 
hands  of  the  church  were  raised  in  horror.  He 
was  denounced  as  the  most  despicable  of  men. 

Not  content  with  following  him  to  his  grave, 
they  pursued  him  after  death  with  redoubled 
fury,  and  recounted  with  infinite  gusto  and  satis- 
faction the  supposed  horrors  of  his  death-bed ; 
gloried  in  the  fact  that  he  was  forlorn  and  friend- 
less, and  gloated  like  fiends  over  what  they  sup- 
posed to  be  the  agonizing  remorse  of  his  lonely 
death. 

It  is  wonderful  that  all  his  services  were  thus 
forgotten.  It  is  amazing  that  one  kind  word  did 
not  fall  from  some  pulpit ;  that  some  one  did  not 
accord  to  him,  at  least  —  honesty.  Strange,  that 
in   the   general   denunciation    some   one   did   not 


136  THOMAS  PAINE, 

remember  his  labor  for  liberty,  his  devotion  to 
principle,  his  zeal  for  the  rights  of  his  fellow-men. 
He  had,  by  brave  and  splendid  effort,  associated 
his  name  with  the  cause  of  Progress.  He  had 
made  it  impossible  to  write  the  history  of  political 
freedom  with  his  name  left  out.  He  was  one  of 
the  creators  of  light ;  one  of  the  heralds  of  the 
dawn.  He  hated  tyranny  in  the  name  of  kings, 
and  in  the  name  of  God,  with  every  drop  of  his 
noble  blood.  He  believed  in  liberty  and  justice, 
and  in  the  sacred  doctrine  of  human  equality. 
Under  these  divine  banners  he  fought  the  battle 
of  his  life.  In  both  worlds  he  offered  his  blood 
for  the  good  of  man.  In  the  wilderness  of 
America,  in  the  French  Assembly,  in  the  sombre 
cell  waiting  for  death,  he  was  the  same  unflinch- 
ing, unwavering  friend  of  his  race  ;  the  same  un- 
daunted champion  of  universal  freedom.  And 
for  this  he  has  been  hated  ;  for  this  the  church 
has  violated  even  his  grave. 

This  is  enough  to  make  one  believe  that 
nothing  is  more  natural  than  for  men  to  devour 
their  benefactors.  The  people  in  all  ages  have 
crucified  and  glorified.  Whoever  lifts  his  voice 
against  abuses,  whoever  arraigns  the  past  at  the 


THOMAS  PAINE.  137 

bar  of  the  present,  whoever  asks  the  king  to  show 
his  commission,  or  questions  the  authority  of  the 
priest,  will  be  denounced  as  the  enemy  of  man  and 
God.  In  all  ages  reason  has  been  regarded  as  the 
enemy  of  religion.  Nothing  has  been  considered 
so  pleasing  to  the  Deity  as  a  total  denial  of  the 
authority  of  your  own  mind.  Self-reliance  has 
been  thought  a  deadly  sin ;  and  the  idea  of  living 
and  dying  without  the  aid  and  consolation  of 
superstition  has  always  horrified  the  church.  By 
some  unaccountable  infatuation,  belief  has  been 
and  still  is  considered  of  immense  importance. 
All  religions  have  been  based  upon  the  idea  that 
God  will  forever  reward  the  true  believer,  and  eter- 
nally damn  the  man  who  doubts  or  denies.  Belief 
is  regarded  as  the  one  essential  thing.  To  practice 
justice,  to  love  mercy,  is  not  enough.  You  must 
believe  in  some  incomprehensible  creed.  You 
must  say,  "  Once  one  is  three,  and  three  times  one 
is  one."  The  man  who  practiced  every  virtue,  but 
failed  to  believe,  was  execrated.  Nothing  so  out- 
rages the  feelings  of  the  church  as  a  moral  unbe- 
liever —  nothing  so  horrible  as  a  charitable  Atheist. 
When  Paine  was  born,  the  world  was  religious, 
the  pulpit  was  the  real  throne,  and  the  churches 


138  THOMAS  PAINE. 

were  making  every  effort  to  crush  out  of  the  brain 
the  idea  that  it  had  the  right  to  think. 

The  splendid  saying  of  Lord  Bacon,  that  "  the 
inquiry  of  truth,  which  is  the  love-making  or  wooing 
of  it,  the  knowledge  of  truth,  which  is  the  presence 
of  it,  and  the  belief  of  truth,  which  is  the  enjoying 
of  it,  are  the  sovereign  good  of  human  nature,"  has 
been,  and  ever  will  be,  rejected  by  religionists. 
Intellectual  liberty,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  forever 
destroys  the  idea  that  belief  is  either  praise  or 
blame-worthy,  and  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  every 
creed  in  Christendom.  Paine  recognized  this 
truth.  He  also  saw  that  as  long  as  the  Bible  was 
considered  inspired,  this  infamous  doctrine  of  the 
virtue  of  belief  would  be  believed  and  preached. 
He  examined  the  Scriptures  for  himself,  and  found 
them  filled  with  cruelty,  absurdity  and  immorality. 

He  again  made  up  his  mind  to  sacrifice  himself 
for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men. 

He  commenced  with  the  assertion,  "  That  any 
system  of  religion  that  has  anything  in  it  that 
shocks  the  mind  of  a  child  cannot  be  a  true 
system."  What  a  beautiful,  what  a  tender  senti- 
ment !  No  wonder  the  church  began  to  hate  him. 
He  believed  in  one  God,  and  no  more.     After  this 


THOMAS  FAINE.  139 

life  he  hoped  for  happiness.  He  believed  that  true 
religion  consisted  in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  in 
endeavoring  to  make  our  fellow-creatures  happy, 
and  in  offering  to  God  the  fruit  of  the  heart.  He 
denied  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  This  was 
his  crime. 

He  contended  that  it  is  a  contradiction  in  terms 
to  call  anything  a  revelation  that  comes  to  us 
second-hand,  either  verbally  or  in  writing.  He 
asserted  that  revelation  is  necessarily  limited  to 
the  first  communication,  and  that  after  that  it  is 
only  an  account  of  something  which  another  per- 
son says  was  a  revelation  to  him.  We  have  only 
his  word  for  it,  as  it  was  never  made  to  us.  This 
argument  never  has  been  and  probably  never  will 
be  answered.  He  denied  the  divine  origin  of 
Christ,  and  showed  conclusively  that  the  pretended 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  had  no  reference 
to  him  whatever ;  and  yet  he  believed  that  Christ 
was  a  virtuous  and  amiable  man  ;  that  the  morality 
he  taught  and  practiced  was  of  the  most  benevo- 
lent and  elevated  character,  and  that  it  had  not 
been  exceeded  by  any.  Upon  this  point  he  enter- 
tained the  same  sentiments  now  held  by  the 
Unitarians,  and  in  fact  by  all  the  most  enlightened 
Christians. 


140  THOMAS  PAINE. 

In  his  time  the  church  believed  and  taught 
that  every  word  in  the  Bible  was  absolutely  true. 
Since  his  day  it  has  been  proven  false  in  its  cos- 
mogony, false  in  its  astronomy,  false  in  its  chro- 
nology, false  in  its  history,  and  so  far  as  the  Old 
Testament  is  concerned,  false  in  almost  everything. 
There  are  but  few,  if  any,  scientific  men  who  appre- 
hend that  the  Bible  is  literally  true.  Who  on  earth 
at  this  day  would  pretend  to  settle  any  scientific 
question  by  a  text  from  the  Bible  ?  The  old  belief 
is  confined  to  the  ignorant  and  zealous.  The 
church  itself  will  before  long  be  driven  to  occupy 
the  position  of  Thomas  Paine.  The  best  minds 
of  the  orthodox  world,  to-day,  are  endeavoring  to 
prove  the  existence  of  a  personal  Deity.  All  other 
questions  occupy  a  minor  place.  You  are  no  longer 
asked  to  swallow  the  Bible  whole,  whale,  Jonah  and 
all ;  you  are  simply  required  to  believe  in  God,  and 
pay  your  pew-rent.  There  is  not  now  an  enlight- 
ened minister  in  the  world  who  will  seriously  con- 
tend that  Samson's  strength  was  in  his  hair,  or 
that  the  necromancers  of  Egypt  could  turn  water 
into  blood,  and  pieces  of  wood  into  serpents. 
These  follies  have  passed  away,  and  the  only 
reason  that  the  religious  world  can  now  have  for 


THOMAS  PAINE.  141 

disliking"  Paine  is  that  they  have  been  forced  to 
adopt  so  many  of  his  opinions. 

Paine  thought  the  barbarities  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament inconsistent  with  what  he  deemed  the  real 
character  of  God.  He  believed  that  murder,  mas- 
sacre and  indiscriminate  slaughter  had  never  been 
commanded  by  the  Deity.  He  regarded  much  of 
the  Bible  as  childish,  unimportant  and  foolish. 
The  scientific  world  entertains  the  same  opinion. 
Paine  attacked  the  Bible  precisely  in  the  same 
spirit  in  which  he  had  attacked  the  pretensions  of 
kings.  He  used  the  same  weapons.  All  the  pomp 
in  the  world  could  not  make  him  cower.  His 
reason  knew  no  "Holy  of  Holies,"  except  the 
abode  of  Truth.  The  sciences  were  then  in  their 
infancy.  The  attention  of  the  really  learned  had 
not  been  directed  to  an  impartial  examination  of 
our  pretended  revelation.  It  was  accepted  by  most 
as  a  matter  of  course.  The  church  was  all-power- 
ful, and  no  one,  unless  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  thought  for  a  moment  of 
disputing  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity. The  infamous  doctrines  that  salvation  depends 
upon  belief — upon  a  mere  intellectual  conviction 
— was  then  believed  and  preached.     To  doubt  was 


142  THOMAS  PAINE. 

to  secure  the  damnation  of  your  soul.  This  absurd 
and  devilish  doctrine  shocked  the  common  sense  of 
Thomas  Paine,  and  he  denounced  it  with  the  fervor 
of  honest  indignation.  This  doctrine,  although 
infinitely  ridiculous,  has  been  nearly  universal,  and 
has  been  as  hurtful  as  senseless.  For  the  over- 
throw of  this  infamous  tenet,  Paine  exerted  all  his 
strength.  He  left  few  arguments  to  be  used  by 
those  who  should  come  after  him,  and  he  used 
none  that  have  been  refuted.  The  combined  wis- 
dom and  genius  of  all  mankind  cannot  possibly 
conceive  of  an  argument  against  liberty  of  thought. 
Neither  can  they  show  why  any  one  should  be 
punished,  either  in  this  world  or  another,  for 
acting  honestly  in  accordance  with  reason ;  and 
yet  a  doctrine  with  every  possible  argument 
against  it  has  been,  and  still  is,  believed  and 
defended  by  the  entire  orthodox  world.  Can 
it  be  possible  that  we  have  been  endowed  with 
reason  simply  that  our  souls  may  be  caught 
in  its  toils  and  snares,  that  we  may  be  led  by  its 
false  and  delusive  glare  out  of  the  narrow  path 
that  leads  to  joy  into  the  broad  way  of  ever- 
lasting death  ?  Is  it  possible  that  we  have  been 
given   reason   simply  that  we   may  through   faith 


THOMAS  PAINE.  143 

ignore  its  deductions,  and  avoid  its  conclusions? 
Ought  the  sailor  to  throw  away  his  compass  and 
depend  entirely  upon  the  fog  ?  If  reason  is  not 
to  be  depended  upon  in  matters  of  religion,  that 
is  to  say,  in  respect  of  our  duties  to  the  Deity, 
why  should  it  be  relied  upon  in  matters  respect- 
ing the  rights  of  our  fellows?  Why  should  we 
throw  away  the  laws  given  to  Moses  by  God 
himself,  and  have  the  audacity  to  make  some  of 
our  own  ?  How  dare  we  drown  the  thunders  of 
Sinai  by  calling  the  ayes  and  noes  in  a  petty 
legislature  ?  If  reason  can  determine  what  is 
merciful,  what  is  just,  the  duties  of  man  to  man, 
what  more  do  we  want  either  in  time  or  eternity  ? 

Down,  forever  down,  with  any  religion  that 
requires  upon  its  ignorant  altar  the  sacrifice  of 
the  goddess  Reason,  that  compels  her  to  abdi- 
cate forever  the  shining  throne  of  the  soul,  strips 
from  her  form  the  imperial  purple,  snatches  from 
her  hand  the  sceptre  of  thought  and  makes  her 
the  bond-woman  of  a  senseless  faith ! 

If  a  man  should  tell  you  that  he  had  the 
most  beautiful  painting  in  the  world,  and  after 
taking  you  where  it  was  should  insist  upon  hav- 
ing   your    eyes    shut,  you   would   likely   suspect, 


144  THOMAS  PAINE. 

either  that  he  had  no  painting  or  that  it  was 
some  pitiable  daub.  Should  he  tell  you  that  he 
was  a  most  excellent  performer  on  the  violin,  and 
yet  refuse  to  play  unless  your  ears  were  stopped, 
you  would  think,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  that  he 
had  an  odd  way  of  convincing  you  of  his  musical 
ability.  But  would  his  conduct  be  any  more 
wonderful  than  that  of  a  religionist  who  asks 
that  before  examining  his  creed  you  will  have  the 
kindness  to  throw  away  your  reason  ?  The  first 
gentleman  says,  "  Keep  your  eyes  shut,  my  pic- 
ture will  bear  everything  but  being  seen  ; "  "  Keep 
your  ears  stopped,  my  music  objects  to  nothing 
but  being  heard."  The  last  says,  "  Away  with 
your  reason,  my  religion  dreads  nothing  but  being 
understood." 

So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  most  cheerfully 
admit  that  most  Christians  are  honest,  and  most 
ministers  sincere.  We  do  not  attack  them ;  we 
attack  their  creed.  We  accord  to  them  the  same 
rights  that  we  ask  for  ourselves.  We  believe 
that  their  doctrines  are  hurtful.  We  believe  that 
the  frightful  text,  "He  that  believes  shall  be 
saved  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned," 
has  covered  the  earth   with   blood.      It   has   filled 


THOMAS  PAINE.  14i^ 

the  heart  with  arrogance,  cruelty  and  murder.  It 
has  caused  the  religious  wars ;  bound  hundreds 
of  thousands  to  the  stake ;  founded  inquisitions ; 
filled  dungeons ;  invented  instruments  of  torture ; 
taught  the  mother  to  hate  her  child ;  imprisoned 
the  mind ;  filled  the  world  with  ignorance ;  per- 
secuted the  lovers  of  wisdom ;  built  the  monas- 
teries and  convents ;  made  happiness  a  crime,  in- 
vestigation a  sin,  and  self-reliance  a  blasphemy. 
It  has  poisoned  the  springs  of  learning;  misdi- 
rected the  energies  of  the  world ;  filled  all  coun- 
tries with  want ;  housed  the  people  in  hovels ; 
fed  them  with  famine ;  and  but  for  the  efforts  of 
a  few  brave  Infidels  it  would  have  taken  the 
world  back  to  the  midnight  of  barbarism,  and 
left  the  heavens  without  a  star. 

The  maligners  of  Paine  say  that  he  had  no 
right  to  attack  this  doctrine,  because  he  was  un- 
acquainted with  the  dead  languages ;  and  for  this 
reason,  it  was  a  piece  of  pure  impudence  in  him 
to  investigate  the  Scriptures. 

Is  it  necessary  to  understand  Hebrew  in  order 
to  know  that  cruelty  is  not  a  virtue,  that  murder 
is  inconsistent  with  infinite  goodness,  and  that 
eternal    punishment   can   be   inflicted    upon    man 


146  THOMAS  PAINE, 

only  by  an  eternal  fiend  ?  Is  it  really  essential 
to  conjugate  the  Greek  verbs  before  you  can 
make  up  your  mind  as  to  the  probability  of  dead 
people  getting  out  of  their  graves?  Must  one 
be  versed  in  Latin  before  he  is  entitled  to  ex- 
press his  opinion  as  to  the  genuineness  of  a  pre- 
tended revelation  from  God  ?  Common  sense 
belongs  exclusively  to  no  tongue.  Logic  is  not 
confined  to,  nor  has  it  been  buried  with,  the  dead 
languages.  Paine  attacked  the  Bible  as  it  is 
translated.  If  the  translation  is  wrong,  let  its 
defenders  correct  it 

The  Christianity  of  Paine's  day  is  not  the 
Christianity  of  our  time.  There  has  been  a 
great  improvement  since  then.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago  the  foremost  preachers  of 
our  time  would  have  perished  at  the  stake.  A 
Universalist  would  have  been  torn  in  pieces  in 
England,  Scotland,  and  America.  Unitarians 
would  have  found  themselves  in  the  stocks, 
pelted  by  the  rabble  with  dead  cats,  after  which 
their  ears  would  have  been  cut  off,  their  tongues 
bored,  and  their  foreheads  branded.  Less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  the  following 
law  was  in  force  in  Maryland: 


THOMAS  PAINE,  147 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Right  Honorable,  the  Lord  Pro- 
prietor, by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  his  Lord- 
ship's governor,  and  the  upper  and  lower  houses  of  the 
Assembly,  and  the  authority  of  the  same : 

"That  if  any  person  shall  hereafter,  within  this  province, 
wittingly,  maliciously,  and  advisedly,  by  writing  or  speaking, 
blaspheme  or  curse  God,  or  deny  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ, 
to  be  the  Son  of  God,  or  shall  deny  the  Holy  Trinity,  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  or  the  Godhead  of  any  of  the 
three  persons,  or  the  unity  of  the  Godhead,  or  shall  utter 
any  profane  words  concerning  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  any  of 
the  persons  thereof,  and  shall  thereof  be  convict  by  verdict, 
shall,  for  the  first  offence,  be  bored  through  the  tongue,  and 
fined  twenty  pounds  to  be  levied  of  his  body.  And  for  the 
second  offence,  the  offender  shall  be  stigmatized  by  burning 
in  the  forehead  with  the  letter  B,  and  fined  forty  pounds. 
And  that  for  the  third  offence  the  oflfender  shall  suffer  death 
without  the  benefit  of  clergy." 

The  strange    thing   about    this    law    is,  that  it 
has   never  been   repealed,  and  is  still   in   force   in 
the   District   of  Columbia.      Laws    like    this    were 
in   force   in   most  of  the   colonies,  and  in  all  coun 
tries  where  the  church  had  power. 

In  the  Old  Testament,  the  death  penalty  wa:^ 
attached  to  hundreds  of  offences.  It  has  been 
the  same  in  all  Christian  countries.  To-day,  in 
civilized   governments,  the    death    penalty    is   at- 


148  THOMAS  PAINE. 

tached  only  to  murder  and  treason ;  and  in  some 
it  has  been  entirely  abolished.  What  a  com- 
mentary upon  the  divine  systems  of  the  world ! 
In  the  day  of  Thomas  Paine,  the  church  was 
ignorant,  bloody  and  relentless.  In  Scotland  the 
"  Kirk "  was  at  the  summit  of  its  power.  It  was 
a  full  sister  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition.  It  waged 
war  upon  human  nature.  It  was  the  enemy  of 
happiness,  the  hater  of  joy,  and  the  despiser  of 
religious  liberty.  It  taught  parents  to  murder 
their  children  rather  than  to  allow  them  to  prop- 
agate error.  If  the  mother  held  opinions  of 
which  the  infamous  "  Kirk  "  disapproved,  her  chil- 
dren were  taken  from  her  arms,  her  babe  from 
her  very  bosom,  and  she  was  not  allowed  to  see 
them,  or  to  write  them  a  word.  It  would  not 
allow  shipwrecked  sailors  to  be  rescued  from 
drowning  on  Sunday.  It  sought  to  annihilate 
pleasure,  to  pollute  the  heart  by  filling  it  with 
religious  cruelty  and  gloom,  and  to  change  man- 
kind into  a  vast  horde  of  pious,  heartless  fiends. 
One  of  the  most  famous  Scotch  divines  said : 
•*  The  Kirk  holds  that  religious  toleration  is  not 
far  from  blasphemy."  And  this  same  Scotch  Kirk 
denounced,   beyond   measure,  the   man   who   had 


THOMAS  PAINE.  149 

the  moral  grandeur  to  say,  "The  world  is  my 
country,  and  to  do  good  my  religion."  And  this 
same  Kirk  abhorred  the  man  who  said,  "  Any 
system  of  religion  that  shocks  the  mind  of  a  child 
cannot  be  a  true  system." 

At  that  time  nothing  so  delighted  the  church 
as  the  beauties  of  endless  torment,  and  listening 
to  the  weak  wailings  of  damned  infants  struggling 
in  the  slimy  coils  and  poison-folds  of  the  worm 
that  never  dies. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, a  boy  by  the  name  of  Thomas  Aikenhead, 
was  indicted  and  tried  at  Edinburgh  for  having 
denied  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  for 
having,  on  several  occasions,  when  cold,  wished 
himself  in  hell  that  he  might  get  warm.  Not- 
withstanding the  poor  boy  recanted  and  begged 
for  mercy,  he  was  found  guilty  and  hanged.  His 
body  was  thrown  in  a  hole  at  the  foot  of  the 
scaffold  and  covered  with  stones. 

Prosecutions  and  executions  like  this  were 
common  in  every  Christian  country,  and  all  of 
them  were  based  upon  the  belief  that  an  intel- 
lectual conviction  is  a  crime. 

No  wonder  the  church  hated  and  traduced 
the  author  of  the  "  Age  of   Reason." 


160  THOMAS  PAINE 

England  was  filled  with  Puritan  gloom  and 
Episcopal  ceremony.  All  religious  conceptions 
were  of  the  grossest  nature.  The  ideas  of  crazy 
fanatics  and  extravagant  poets  were  taken  as 
sober  facts.  Milton  had  clothed  Christianity  in 
the  soiled  and  faded  finery  of  the  gods  —  had 
added  to  the  story  of  Christ  the  fables  of  Myth- 
ology. He  gave  to  the  Protestant  Church  the 
most  outrageously  material  ideas  of  the  Deity. 
He  turned  all  the  angels  into  soldiers  —  made 
heaven  a  battlefield,  put  Christ  in  uniform,  and 
described  God  as  a  militia  general.  His  works 
were  considered  by  the  Protestants  nearly  as  sa- 
cred as  the  Bible  itself,  and  the  imagination  of 
the  people  was  thoroughly  polluted  by  the  hor- 
rible imagery,  the  sublime  absurdity  of  the  blind 
Milton. 

Heaven  and  hell  were  realities  —  the  judgment- 
day  was  expected  —  books  of  account  would  be 
opened.  Every  man  would  hear  the  charges 
against  him  read.  God  was  supposed  to  sit  on 
a  golden  throne,  surrounded  by  the  tallest  angels, 
with  harps  in  their  hands  and  crowns  on  their 
heads.  The  goats  would  be  thrust  into  eternal 
fire  on  the  left,  while  the  orthodox  sheep,  on  the 


THOMAS  PAINE.  ■  151 

right,   were   to  gambol   on   sunny   slopes   forever 
and  forever. 

The  nation  was  profoundly  ignorant,  and  con- 
sequently extremely  religious,  so  far  as  belief  was 
concerned. 

In  Europe,  Liberty  was  lying  chained  in  the 
Inquisition — her  white  bosom  stained  with  blood. 
In  the  New  World  the  Puritans  had  been  hanging 
and  burning  in  the  name  of  God,  and  selling 
white  Quaker  children  into  slavery  in  the  name 
of  Christ,  who  said,  **  Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me." 

Under  such  conditions  progress  was  impos- 
sible. Some  one  had  to  lead  the  way.  The 
church  is,  and  always  has  been,  incapable  of  a 
forward  movement.  Religion  always  looks  back. 
The  church  has  already  reduced  Spain  to  a  guitar, 
Italy  to  a  hand-organ,  and  Ireland  to  exile. 

Some  one  not  connected  with  the  church  had 
to  attack  the  monster  that  was  eating  out  the 
heart  of  the  world.  Some  one  had  to  sacrifice 
himself  for  the  good  of  all.  The  people  were  in 
the  most  abject  slavery  ;  their  manhood  had  been 
taken  from  them  by  pomp,  by  pageantry  and 
power.     Progress  is  born  of  doubt  and  inquiry. 


152  THOMAS  PAINE. 

The  church  never  doubts — never  inquires.  To 
doubt  is  heresy — to  inquire  is  to  admit  that  you 
do  not  know — the  church  does  neither. 

More  than  a  century  ago  Catholicism,  wrapped 
in  robes  red  with  the  innocent  blood  of  millions, 
holding  in  her  frantic  clutch  crowns  and  scepters, 
honors  and  gold,  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell, 
trampling  beneath  her  feet  the  liberties  of  nations, 
in  the  proud  moment  of  almost  universal  domin- 
ion, felt  within  her  heartless  breast  the  deadly 
dagger  of  Voltaire.  From  that  blow  the  church 
never  can  recover.  Livid  with  hatred  she  launched 
her  eternal  anathema  at  the  great  destroyer,  and 
ignorant  Protestants  have  echoed  the  curse  of 
Rome. 

In  our  country  the  church  was  all-powerful, 
and  although  divided  into  many  sects,  would  in- 
stantly unite  to  repel  a  common  foe. 

Paine  struck  the  first  grand  blow. 

The  "Age  of  Reason  "  did  more  to  undermine 
the  power  of  the  Protestant  Church  than  all  other 
books  then  known.  It  furnished  an  immense 
amount  of  food  for  thought.  It  was  written  for 
the  average  mind,  and  is  a  straightforward,  honest 
investigation  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  Christian 
system. 


THOMAS  PAINE.  153 

Paine  did  not  falter,  from  the  first  page  to  the 
last.  He  gives  you  his  candid  thought,  and  can- 
did thoughts  are  always  valuable. 

The  "Age  of  Reason "  has  liberalized  us  all. 
It  put  arguments  in  the  mouths  of  the  people  ; 
it  put  the  church  on  the  defensive ;  it  enabled 
somebody  in  every  village  to  corner  the  parson  ; 
it  made  the  world  wiser,  and  the  church  better ; 
it  took  power  from  the  pulpit  and  divided  it  among 
the  pews. 

Just  in  proportion  that  the  human  race  has 
advanced,  the  church  has  lost  power.  There  is 
no  exception  to  this  rule. 

No  nation  ever  materially  advanced  that  held 
strictly  to  the  religion  of  its  founders. 

No  nation  ever  gave  itself  wholly  to  the  control 
of  the  church  without  losing  its  power,  its  honor, 
and  existence. 

Every  church  pretends  to  have  found  the  exact 
truth.  This  is  the  end  of  progress.  Why  pursue 
that  which  you  have  .'*  Why  investigate  when  you 
know  } 

Every  creed  is  a  rock  in  running  water :  hu- 
manity sweeps  by  it.  Every  creed  cries  to  the 
universe,  "  Halt ! "  A  creed  is  the  ignorant  Past 
bullying  the  enlightened  Present, 


164  THOMAS  PAINE. 

The  ignorant  are  not  satisfied  with  what  can 
be  demonstrated.  Science  is  too  slow  for  them,  and 
so  they  invent  creeds.  They  demand  complete- 
ness. A  sublime  segment,  a  grand  fragment,  are 
of  no  value  to  them.  They  demand  the  complete 
circle — the  entire  structure. 

In  music  they  want  a  melody  with  a  recurring 
accent  at  measured  periods.  In  religion  they  in- 
sist upon  immediate  answers  to  the  questions  of 
creation  and  destiny.  The  alpha  and  omega  of 
all  things  must  be  in  the  alphabet  of  their  super- 
stition. A  religion  that  cannot  answer  every 
question,  and  guess  every  conundrum  is,  in  their 
estimation,  worse  than  worthless.  They  desire  a 
kind  of  theological  dictionary  —  a  religious  ready 
reckoner,  together  with  guide-boards  at  all  cross- 
ings and  turns.  They  mistake  impudence  for 
authority,  solemnity  for  wisdom,  and  bathos  for 
inspiration.  The  beginning  and  the  end  are  what 
they  demand.  The  grand  flight  of  the  eagle  is 
nothing  to  them.  They  want  the  nest  in  which 
he  was  hatched,  and  especially  the  dry  limb  upon 
which  he  roosts.  Anything  that  can  be  learned 
is  hardly  worth  knowing.  The  present  is  consid- 
ered of   no  value   in    itself.       Happiness    must  not 


THOMAS  PAINE.  155 

be  expected  this  side  of  the  clouds,  and  can  only 
be  attained  by  self-denial  and  faith;  not  self- 
denial  for  the  good  of  others,  but  for  the  salva- 
tion of  your  own  sweet  self. 

Paine  denied  the  authority  of  bibles  and 
creeds ;  this  was  his  crime,  and  for  this  the 
world  shut  the  door  in  his  face,  and  emptied  its 
slops  upon  him  from  the  windows. 

I  challenge  the  world  to  show  that  Thomas 
Paine  ever  wrote  one  line,  one  word  in  favor  of 
tyranny  —  in  favor  of  immorality ;  one  line,  one 
word  against  what  he  believed  to  be  for  the  high- 
est and  best  interest  of  mankind ;  one  line,  one 
word  against  justice,  charity,  or  liberty,  and  yet 
he  has  been  pursued  as  though  he  had  been  a 
fiend  from  hell.  His  memory  has  been  execrated 
as  though  he  had  murdered  some  Uriah  for  his 
wife ;  driven  some  Hagar  into  the  desert  to 
starve  with  his  child  upon  her  bosom ;  defiled  his 
own  daughters ;  ripped  open  with  the  sword  the 
sweet  bodies  of  loving  and  innocent  women ;  ad- 
vised one  brother  to  assassinate  another ;  kept  a 
harem  with  seven  hundred  wives  and  three  hun- 
dred concubines,  or  had  persecuted  Christians 
even  unto  strange  cities. 


156  THOMAS  PAINE. 

The  church  has  pursued  Paine  to  deter  oth- 
ers. No  effort  has  been  in  any  age  of  the  world 
spared  to  crush  out  opposition.  The  church 
used  painting,  music  and  architecture,  simply  to 
degrade  mankind.  But  there  are  men  that  noth- 
ing can  awe.  There  have  been  at  all  times  brave 
spirits  that  dared  even  the  gods.  Some  proud 
head  has  always  been  above  the  waves.  In  every 
age  some  Diogenes  has  sacrificed  to  all  the  gods. 
True  genius  never  cowers,  and  there  is  always 
some  Samson  feeling  for  the  pillars  of  authority. 

Cathedrals  and  domes,  and  chimes  and  chants 
■ —  temples  frescoed  and  groined  and  carved,  and 
gilded  with  gold  —  altars  and  tapers,  and  paint- 
ings of  virgin  and  babe  —  censer  and  chalice  — 
chasuble,  paten  and  alb  —  organs,  and  anthems 
and  incense  rising  to  the  winged  and  blest  —  man- 
iple, amice  and  stole  —  crosses  and  crosiers,  tiaras 
and  crowns  —  mitres  and  missals  and  masses  — 
rosaries,  relics  and  robes  —  martyrs  and  saints, 
and  windows  stained  as  with  the  blood  of  Christ 
—  never,  never  for  one  moment  awed  the  brave, 
proud  spirit  of  the  Infidel.  He  knew  that  all 
the  pomp  and  glitter  had  been  purchased  with 
Liberty  — that   priceless    jewel   of    the   soul.     In 


THOMAS  PAINE.  157 

looking  at  the  cathedral  he  remembered  the  dun- 
geon. The  music  of  the  organ  was  not  loud 
enough  to  drown  the  clank  of  fetters.  He  could 
not  forget  that  the  taper  had  lighted  the  fagot 
He  knew  that  the  cross  adorned  the  hilt  of  the 
sword,  and  so  where  others  worshiped,  he  wept 
and  scorned. 

The  doubter,  the  investigator,  the  Infidel,  have 
been  the  saviors  of  liberty.  This  truth  is  begin- 
ning to  be  realized,  and  the  truly  intellectual  are 
honoring  the  brave  thinkers  of  the  past. 

But  the  church  is  as  unforgiving  as  ever,  and 
still  wonders  why  any  Infidel  should  be  wicked 
enough  to  endeavor  to  destroy  her  power, 

I  will  tell  the  church  why. 

You  have  imprisoned  the  human  mind;  you 
have  been  the  enemy  of  liberty ;  you  have  burned 
us  at  the  stake  —  wasted  us  upon  slow  fires  — 
torn  our  flesh  with  iron ;  you  have  covered  us 
with  chains  —  treated  us  as  outcasts ;  you  have 
filled  the  world  with  fear;  you  have  taken  our 
wives  and  children  from  our  arms ;  you  have 
confiscated  our  property ;  you  have  denied  us  the 
right  to  testify  in  courts  of  justice ;  you  have 
branded  us  with  infamy;  you  have  torn  out  our 


158  THOMAS  PAINE. 

tongues ;  you  have  refused  us  burial.  In  the 
name  of  your  religion,  you  have  robbed  us  of 
every  right ;  and  after  having  inflicted  upon  us 
every  evil  that  can  be  inflicted  in  this  world,  you 
have  fallen  upon  your  knees,  and  with  clasped 
hands  implored  your  God  to  torment  us  forever. 
Can  you  wonder  that  we  hate  your  doctrines 

—  that  we  despise  your  creeds  —  that  we  feel 
proud  to  know  that  we  are  beyond  your  power 

—  that  we  are  free  in  spite  of  you  —  that  we  can 
express  our  honest  thought,  and  that  the  whole 
world  is  grandly  rising  into  the  blessed  light? 

Can  you  wonder  that  we  point  with  pride  to 
the  fact  that  Infidelity  has  ever  been  found  bat- 
tling for  the  rights  of  man,  for  the  liberty  of 
conscience,  and  for  the  happiness  of  all? 

Can  you  wonder  that  we  are  proud  to  know 
that  we  have  always  been  disciples  of  Reason, 
and  soldiers  of  Freedom ;  that  we  have  de- 
nounced tyranny  and  superstition,  and  have  kept 
our  hands  unstained  with  human  blood? 

We  deny  that  religion  is  the  end  or  object 
of  this  life.  When  it  is  so  considered  it  becomes 
destructive  of  happiness  —  the  real  end  of  life. 
It  becomes   a   hydra-headed  monster,  reaching  in 


THOMAS  PAINE.  159 

terrible  coils  from  the  heavens,  and  thrusting  its 
thousand  fangs  into  the  bleeding,  quivering  hearts 
of  men.  It  devours  their  substance,  builds  pal- 
aces for  God,  (who  dwells  not  in  temples  made 
with  hands,)  and  allows  his  children  to  die  in 
huts  and  hovels.  It  fills  the  earth  with  mourn- 
ing, heaven  with  hatred,  the  present  with  fear, 
and  all  the  future  with  despair. 

Virtue  is  a  subordination  of  the  passions  to 
the  intellect.  It  is  to  act  in  accordance  with 
your  highest  convictions.  It  does  not  consist  in 
believing,  but  in  doing.  This  is  the  sublime  truth 
that  the  Infidels  in  all  ages  have  uttered.  They 
have  handed  the  torch  from  one  to  the  other 
through  all  the  years  that  have  fled.  Upon  the 
altar  of  Reason  they  have  kept  the  sacred  fire, 
and  through  the  long  midnight  of  faith  they  fed 
the  divine  flame. 

Infidelity  is  liberty;  all  religion  is  slavery.  In 
every  creed  man  is  the  slave  of  God  —  woman  is 
the  slave  of  man  and  the  sweet  children  are  the 
slaves  of  all. 

We  do  not  want  creeds ;  we  want  knowledge 
—  we  want  happiness. 

And  yet  we  are  told  by  the  church  that  we 
have   accomplished    nothing ;    that  we   are   simply 


l6o  THOMAS  PAINE. 

destroyers ;  that  we  tear  down  without  building 
again. 

Is  it  nothing  to  free  the  mind?  Is  it  noth- 
ing to  civiHze  mankind  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  fill  the 
world  with  light,  with  discovery,  with  science? 
Is  it  nothing  to  dignify  man  and  exalt  the  intel- 
lect? Is  it  nothing  to  grope  your  way  into  the 
dreary  prisons,  the  damp  and  dropping  dungeons, 
the  dark  and  silent  cells  of  superstition,  where 
the  souls  of  men  are  chained  to  floors  of  stone ; 
to  greet  them  like  a  ray  of  light,  like  the  song  of 
a  bird,  the  murmur  of  a  stream ;  to  see  the  dull 
eyes  open  and  grow  slowly  bright ;  to  feel  your- 
self grasped  by  the  shrunken  and  unused  hands, 
and  hear  yourself  thanked  by  a  strange  and  hol- 
low voice? 

Is  it  nothing  to  conduct  these  souls  gradually 
into  the  blessed  light  of  day  —  to  let  them  see 
again  the  happy  fields,  the  sweet,  green  earth,  and 
hear  the  everlasting  music  of  the  waves?  Is  it 
nothing  to  make  men  wipe  the  dust  from  their 
swollen  knees,  the  tears  from  their  blanched  and 
furrowed  cheeks?  Is  it  a  small  thing  to  reave 
the  heavens  of  an  insatiate  monster  and  write 
upon  the  eternal  dome,  glittering  with  stars,  the 
grand  word  —  Freedom  ? 


THOMAS  PAINE.  181 

Is  it  a  small  thing  to  quench  the  flames  of 
hell  with  the  holy  tears  of  pity  —  to  unbind  the 
martyr  from  the  stake  —  break  all  the  chains  — 
put  out  the  fires  of  civil  war  —  stay  the  sword 
of  the  fanatic,  and  tear  the  bloody  hands  of  the 
Church  from  the  white  throat  of  Science? 

Is  it  a  small  thing  to  make  men  truly  free  — 
to  destroy  the  dogmas  of  ignorance,  prejudice 
and  power  —  the  poisoned  fables  of  superstition, 
and  drive  from  the  beautiful  face  of  the  earth  the 
fiend  of  Fear? 

It  does  seem  as  though  the  most  zealous 
Christian  must  at  times  entertain  some  doubt  as 
to  the  divine  origin  of  his  religion.  For  eight- 
een hundred  years  the  doctrine  has  been  preached. 
For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  church  had, 
to  a  great  extent,  the  control  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  what  has  been  the  result?  Are  the 
Christian  nations  patterns  of  charity  and  forbear- 
ance ?  On  the  contrary,  their  principal  business 
is  to  destroy  each  other.  More  than  five  millions 
of  Christians  are  trained,  educated,  and  drilled 
to  murder  their  fellow-christians.  Every  nation 
is  groaning  under  a  vast  debt  incurred  in  carry- 
ing on  war  against  other  Christians,  or  defending 


163  THOMAS  PAINE. 

itself  from  Christian  assault.  The  world  is  cov- 
ered with  forts  to  protect  Christians  from  Chris- 
tians, and  every  sea  is  covered  with  iron  mon- 
sters ready  to  blow  Christian  brains  into  eter- 
nal froth.  Millions  upon  millions  are  annually 
expended  in  the  effort  to  construct  still  more 
deadly  and  terrible  engines  of  death.  Industry 
is  crippled,  honest  toil  is  robbed,  and  even  beg- 
gary is  taxed  to  defray  the  expenses  of  Christian 
warfare.  There  must  be  some  other  way  to  re- 
form this  world.  We  have  tried  creed,  and 
dogma  and  fable,  and  they  have  failed ;  and  they 
have  failed  in  all  the  nations  dead. 

The  people  perish  for  the  lack  of  knowledge. 

Nothing  but  education — scientific  education  — 
can  benefit  mankind.  We  must  find  out  the  laws 
of  nature  and  conform  to  them. 

We  need  free  bodies  and  free  minds, —  free 
labor  and  free  thought, —  chainless  hands  and  fet- 
terless brains.  Free  labor  will  give  us  wealth. 
Free  thought  will  give  us  truth. 

We  need  men  with  moral  courage  to  speak 
and  write  their  real  thoughts,  and  to  stand  by 
their  convictions,  even  to  the  very  death.  We 
need  have    no    fear   of    being   too    radical.      The 


THOMAS  PAINE.  163 

future  will  verify  all  grand  and  brave  predictions. 
Paine  was  splendidly  in  advance  of  his  time ;  but 
he  was  orthodox  compared  with  the  Infidels  of 
to-day. 

Science,  the  great  Iconoclast,  has  been  busy 
since  1809,  ^^^  ^Y  ^^  highway  of  Progress  are 
the  broken  images  of  the  Past. 

On  every  hand  the  people  advance.  The  Vicar 
of  God  has  been  pushed  from  the  throne  of  the 
Caesars,  and  upon  the  roofs  of  the  Eternal  City 
falls  once  more  the  shadow  of  the  Eagle. 

All  has  been  accomplished  by  the  heroic  few. 
The  men  of  science  have  explored  heaven  and 
earth,  and  with  infinite  patience  have  furnished 
the  facts.  The  brave  thinkers  have  used  them. 
The  gloomy  caverns  of  superstition  have  been 
transformed  into  temples  of  thought,  and  the 
demons  of  the  past  are  the  angels  of  to-day. 

Science  took  a  handful  of  sand,  constructed  a 
telescope,  and  with  it  explored  the  starry  depths 
of  heaven.  Science  wrested  from  the  gods  their 
thunderbolts  ;  and  now,  the  electric  spark,  freighted 
with  thought  and  love,  flashes  under  all  the  waves 
of  the  sea.  Science  took  a  tear  from  the  cheek 
of  unpaid  labor,  converted  it  into  steam,  created 


164  THOMAS  PAINE. 

a  giant  that  turns  with  tireless  arm,  the  countless 
wheels  of  toil. 

Thomas  Paine  was  one  of  the  intellectual 
heroes  —  one  of  the  men  to  whom  we  are  indebted. 
His  name  is  associated  forever  with  the  Great 
Republic.  As  long  as  free  government  exists  he 
will  be  remembered,  admired  and  honored. 

He  lived  a  long,  laborious  and  useful  life.  The 
world  is  better  for  his  having  lived.  For  the  sake 
of  truth  he  accepted  hatred  and  reproach  for  his 
portion.  He  ate  the  bitter  bread  of  sorrow.  His 
friends  were  untrue  to  him  because  he  was  true 
to  himself,  and  true  to  them.  .  He  lost  the  respect 
of  what  is  called  society,  but  kept  his  own.  His 
life  is  what  the  world  calls  failure  and  what  his- 
tory calls  success. 

If  to  love  your  fellow-men  more  than  self  is 
goodness,  Thomas  Paine  was  good. 

If  to  be  in  advance  of  your  time — to  be  a 
pioneer  in  the  direction  of  right  —  is  greatness, 
Thomas  Paine  was  great. 

If  to  avow  your  principles  and  discharge  your 
duty  in  the  presence  of  death  is  heroic,  Thomas 
Paine  was  a  hero. 

At  the  age  of  seventy-three,  death  touched  his 
tired    heart.      He    died    in    the    land    his    genius 


THOMAS  PAINE.  165 

defended  —  under  the  flag  he  gave  to  the  skies. 
Slander  cannot  touch  him  now — hatred  cannot 
reach  him  more.  He  sleeps  in  the  sanctuary  of 
the  tomb,  beneath  the  quiet  of  the  stars. 

A  few  more  years — a  few  more  brave  men  —  a 
few  more  rays  of  light,  and  mankind  will  venerate 
the  memory  of  him  who  said : 

"Any  system  of  Religion  that  shocks  the 
mind  of  a  child  cannot  be  a  true  system  ;  " 

"  The  world  is  my  Country,  and  to  do  good 
MY  Religion." 


INDIVIDUALITY. 


INDIVIDUALITY. 


"His  Soul  was  like  a  Stae  and  dwelt  apart." 

ON  every  hand  are  the  enemies  of  individuality 
and  mental  freedom.  Custom  meets  us  at 
the  cradle  and  leaves  us  only  at  the  tomb.  Our 
first  questions  are  answered  by  ignorance,  and  our 
last  by  superstition.  We  are  pushed  and  dragged 
by  countless  hands  along  the  beaten  track,  and 
our  entire  training  can  be  summed  up  in  the  word 
—  suppression.  Our  desire  to  have  a  thing  or  to 
do  a  thing  is  considered  as  conclusive  evidence 
that  we  ought  not  to  have  it,  and  ought  not  to 
do  it.  At  every  turn  we  run  against  cherubim 
and  a  flaming  sword  guarding  some  entrance  to 
the  Eden  of  our  desire.  We  are  allowed  to  in- 
vestigate all  subjects  in  which  we  feel  no  particular 
interest,  and  to  express  the  opinions  of  the  ma- 
jority with  the  utmost  freedom.  We  are  taught 
that  liberty  of  speech  should  never  be   carried  to 


170  INDIVIDUALITY. 

the  extent  of  contradicting  the  dead  witnesses  of 
a  popular  superstition.  Society  offers  continual 
rewards  for  self-betrayal,  and  they  are  nearly  all 
earned  and  claimed,  and  some  are  paid. 

We  have  all  read  accounts  of  Christian  gentle- 
men remarking,  when  about  to  be  hanged,  how 
much  better  it  would  have  been  for  them  if  they 
had  only  followed  a  mother's  advice.  But  after 
all,  how  fortunate  it  is  for  the  world  that  the 
maternal  advice  has  not  always  been  followed. 
How  fortunate  it  is  for  us  all  that  it  is  somewhat 
unnatural  for  a  human  being  to  obey.  Universal 
obedience  is  universal  stagnation ;  disobedience  is 
one  of  the  conditions  of  progress.  Select  any  age 
of  the  world  and  tell  me  what  would  have  been 
the  effect  of  implicit  obedience.  Suppose  the 
church  had  had  absolute  control  of  the  human 
mind  at  any  time,  would  not  the  words  liberty 
and  progress  have  been  blotted  from  human 
speech  ?  In  defiance  of  advice,  the  world  has 
advanced. 

Suppose  the  astronomers  had  controlled  the 
science  of  astronomy ;  suppose  the  doctors  had 
controlled  the  science  of  medicine ;  suppose  kings 
had  been  left  to  fix  the  forms  of  government ;  sup- 


INDIVIDUALITY.  171 

pose  our  fathers  had  taken  the  advice  of  Paul, 
who  said,  "  be  subject  to  the  powers  that  be, 
because  they  are  ordained  of  God ; "  suppose  the 
church  could  control  the  world  to-day,  we  would 
go  back  to  chaos  and  old  night.  Philosophy 
would  be  branded  as  infamous ;  Science  would 
again  press  its  pale  and  thoughtful  face  against 
the  prison  bars,  and  round  the  limbs  of  liberty 
would  climb  the  bigot's  flame. 

It  is  a  blessed  thing  that  in  every  age  some 
one  has  had  individuality  enough  and  courage 
enough  to  stand  by  his  own  convictions,  —  some 
one  who  had  the  grandeur  to  say  his  say.  I 
believe  it  was  Magellan  who  said,  "The  church 
says  the  earth  is  flat ;  but  I  have  seen  its  shadow 
on  the  moon,  and  I  have  more  confidence  even 
in  a  shadow  than  in  the  churcho"  On  the  prow 
of  his  ship  were  disobedience,  defiance,  scorn, 
and  success. 

The  trouble  with  most  people  is,  they  bow 
to  what  is  called  authority ;  they  have  a  certain 
reverence  for  the  old  because  it  is  old.  They 
think  a  man  is  better  for  being  dead,  especially 
if  he  has  been  dead  a  long  time.  They  think 
the  fathers  of  their  nation  were  the  greatest  and 


172  INDIVIDUALITY. 

best  of  all  mankind.  All  these  things  they  im- 
plicitly believe  because  it  is  popular  and  patriotic, 
and  because  they  were  told  so  when  they  were 
very  small,  and  remember  distinctly  of  hearing 
mother  read  it  out  of  a  book.  It  is  hard  to 
over-estimate  the  influence  of  early  training  in 
the  direction  of  superstition.  You  first  teach 
children  that  a  certain  book  is  true — that  it  was 
written  by  God  himself —  that  to  question  its 
truth  is  a  sin,  that  to  deny  it  is  a  crime,  and 
that  should  they  die  without  believing  that  book 
they  will  be  forever  damned  without  benefit  of 
clergy.  The  consequence  is,  that  long  before 
they  read  that  book,  they  believe  it  to  be  true. 
When  they  do  read  it  their  minds  are  wholly 
unfitted  to  investigate  its  claims.  They  accept 
it  as  a  matter  of  course. 

In  this  way  the  reason  is  overcome,  the  sweet 
instincts  of  humanity  are  blotted  from  the  heart, 
and  while  reading  its  infamous  pages  even  justice 
throws  aside  her  scales,  shrieking  for  revenge,  and 
charity,  with  bloody  hands,  applauds  a  deed  of 
murder.  In  this  way  we  are  taught  that  the  re- 
venge of  man  is  the  justice  of  God ;  that  mercy 
is    not    the   same    everywhere.     In   this    way    the 


INDIVID  UALITY.  1 71 


pose  our  father's  had  taken  the  advice  of  Paul, 
who  said,  "  be  subject  to  the  powers  that  be, 
because  they  I'lre  ordained  of  God ; "  suppose  the 
church  could  control  the  world  to-day,  we  would 
go  back  to  chaos  and  old  night.  Philosophy 
would  be  branded  as  infamous;  Science  would 
again  press  its  pale  and  thoughtful  face  against 
the  prison  bars,  and  round  the  limbs  of  liberty 
would  climb  the  bigot's  flame. 

It  is  a  blessed  thing  that  in  every  age  some 
one  has  had  individuality  enough  and  courage 
enough  to  stand  by  his  own  convictions,  —  some 
one  who  had  the  grandeur  to  say  his  say.  I 
believe  it  was  Magellan  who  said,  "*  The  church 
says  the  earth  is  flat ;  but  I  have  seen  its  shadow 
on  the  moon,  and  I  have  more  confidence  even 
in  a  shadow  than  in  the  churcho"  On  the  prow 
of  his  ship  were  disobedience,  defiance,  scorn, 
and  success. 

The  trouble  with  most  people  is,  they  bow 
to  what  is  called  authority;  they  have  a  certain 
reverence  for  the  old  because  it  is  old.  They 
think  a  man  is  better  for  being  dead,  especially 
If  he  has  been  dead  a  long  time.  They  think 
the  fathers  of  their  nation  were  the  greatest  and 


172  INDIVIDUALITY. 

best  of  all  mankind.  All  these  tilings  they  im- 
plicitly believe  because  it  is  populai-  and  patriotic, 
and  because  they  were  told  so  when  they  were 
very  small,  and  remember  distinct/y  of  hearing 
mother  read  it  out  of  a  book.  It  is  hard  to 
over-estimate  the  influence  of  early  training  in 
the  direction  of  superstition.  You  first  teach 
children  that  a  certain  book  is  true — that  it  was 
written  by  God  himself — that  to  question  its 
truth  is  a  sin,  that  to  deny  it  is  a  crime,  and 
that  should  they  die  without  believing  that  book 
they  will  be  forever  damn.ed  without  benefit  of 
clergy.  The  consequence  is,  that  long  before 
they  read  that  book,  they  believe  it  to  be  true. 
When  they  do  read  it  their  minds  are  wholly 
unfitted  to  investigate  its  claims.  They  accept 
it  as  a  matter  of  course. 

In  this  way  the  reason  is  overcome,  the  sweet 
instincts  of  humanity  are  blotted  from  the  heart, 
and  while  reading  its  infamous  pages  even  justice 
tlirov  s  aside  her  scales,  shrieking  for  revenge,  and 
charity,  with  bloody  hands,  applauds  a  deed  of 
murder.  In  this  way  we  are  taught  that  the  re- 
venge of  man  is  the  justice  of  God ;  that  mercy 
is    not   the   same   everywhere.     In   this    way   the 


INDIVIDUALITY,  173 

ideas  of  our  race  have  been  subverted.  In  this 
way  we  have  made  tyrants,  bigots,  and  inquisitors. 
In  this  way  the  brain  of  man  has  become  a  kind 
of  paHmpsest  upon  which,  and  over  the  writings 
of  nature,  superstition  has  scrawled  her  countless 
lies.  One  great  trouble  is  that  most  teachers  are 
dishonest.  They  teach  as  certainties  those  things 
concerning  which  they  entertain  doubts.  They 
do  not  say,  "  we  think  this  is  so,"  but  "  we  hiow 
this  is  so."  They  do  not  appeal  to  the  reason 
of  the  pupil,  but  they  command  his  faith.  They 
keep  all  doubts  to  themselves ;  they  do  not  ex- 
plain, they  assert.  All  this  is  infamous.  In  this 
way  you  may  make  Christians,  but  you  cannot 
make  men ;  you  cannot  make  women.  You  can 
make  followers,  but  no  leaders ;  disciples,  but  no 
Christs.  You  may  promise  power,  honor,  and 
happiness  to  all  those  who  will  blindly  follow, 
but  you  cannot  keep  your  promise. 

A  monarch  said  to  a  hermit,  "  Come  witlv  me 
and  I  will  give  you  power." 

"  I  have  all  the  power  that  I  know  how  to 
use,"  replied  the  hermit. 

"  Come,"  said  the  king,  "  I  will  give  you  wealth." 

"  I  have  no  wants  that  money  can  supply," 
said  the  hermit 


174  INDIVIDUALITY. 

"  I  will  give  you  honor,"  said  the  monarch. 

"  Ah,  honor  cannot  be  given,  it  must  be  earned," 
was  the  hermit's  answer. 

"  Come,"  said  the  king,  making  a  last  appeal, 
"  and  I  will  give  you  happiness." 

"  No,"  said  the  man  of  solitude,  "  there  is  no 
happiness  without  liberty,  and  he  who  follows 
cannot  be  free." 

"  You  shall  have  liberty  too,"  said  the  king. 

"  Then  I  will  stay  where  I  am,"  said  the  old 
man. 

And  all  the  king's  courtiers  thought  the  her- 
mit a  fool. 

Now  and  then  somebody  examines,  and  in 
spite  of  all  keeps  his  manhood,  and  has  the  cour- 
age to  follow  where  his  reason  leads.  Then  the 
pious  get  together  and  repeat  wise  saws,  and 
exchange  knowing  nods  and  most  prophetic 
winks.  The  stupidly  wise  sit  owl-like  on  the 
dead  limbs  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  and  sol- 
emnly hoot.  Wealth  sneers,  and  fashion  laughs, 
and  respectability  passes  by  on  the  other  side, 
and  scorn  points  with  all  her  skinny  fingers,  and 
all  the  snakes  of  superstition  writhe  and  hiss, 
and   slander    lends    her  tongue,   and   infamy   her 


INDIVIDUALITY.  173 

ideas  of  our  race  have  been  subverted.  In  this 
way  we  have  made  tyrants,  bigots,  and  inquisitors. 
In  this  way  the  brain  of  man  has  become  a  kind 
of  paHmpsest  upon  which,  and  o-^er  the  writings 
of  nature,  superstition  has  scrawled  her  countless 
lies.  One  great  trouble  is  that  most  teachers  are 
dishonest.  They  teach  as  certainties  those  things 
concerning  which  they  entertain  doubts.  They 
do  not  say,  "  we  think  this  is  so,"  but  "  we  know 
this  is  so."  They  do  not  appeal  to  the  reason 
of  the  pupil,  but  they  command  his  faith.  They 
keep  all  doubts  to  themselves ;  they  do  not  ex- 
plain, they  assert.  All  this  is  infamous.  In  this 
way  you  may  make  Christians,  but  you  cannot 
make  men ;  you  cannot  make  women.  You  can 
make  followers,  but  no  leaders ;  disciples,  but  no 
Christs.  You  may  promise  power,  honor,  and 
happiness  to  all  those  who  will  blindly  follow, 
but  you  cannot  keep  your  promise. 

A  monarch  said  to  a  hermit,  "  Come  with  me 
and  I  will  give  you  power." 

"  I  have  all  the  power  that  I  know  how  to 
use,"  replied  the  hermit. 

"  Come,"  said  the  king,  "  I  will  give  you  wealth.** 

"  I  have  no  wants  that  money  can  supply," 
said  the  hermit 


174  INDIVIDUALITY. 

"  I  will  give  you  honor,"  said  the  monarch. 

"  Ah,  honor  cannot  be  given,  it  must  be  earned," 
was  the  hermit's  answer. 

"  Come,"  said  the  king,  making  a  last  appeal, 
"  and  I  will  give  you  happiness." 

"  No,"  said  the  man  of  solitude,  "  there  is  no 
happiness  without  liberty,  and  he  who  follows 
cannot  be  free." 

"  You  shall  have  liberty  too,"  said  the  king. 

"  Then  I  will  stay  where  I  am,"  said  the  old 
man. 

And  all  the  king's  courtiers  thought  the  her- 
mit a  fool. 

Now  and  then  somebody  examines,  and  in 
spite  of  all  keeps  his  manhood,  and  has  the  cour- 
age to  follow  where  his  reason  leads.  Then  the 
pious  get  together  and  repeat  wise  saws,  and 
exchange  knowing  nods  and  most  prophetic 
winks.  The  stupidly  wise  sit  owl-like  on  the 
dead  limbs  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  and  sol- 
emnly hoot.  Wealth  sneers,  and  fashion  laughs, 
and  respectability  passes  by  on  the  othei*  side, 
and  scorn  points  with  all  her  skinny  fingers,  and 
all  the  snakes  of  superstition  writhe  and  hiss, 
and   slander    lends    her  tongue,   and   infamy   her 


INDIVID  UALITY,  1 75 

brand,  and  perjury  her  oath,  and  the  law  its 
power,  and  bigotry  tortures,  and  the  church 
kills. 

The  church  hates  a  thinker  precisely  for 
the  same  reason  a  robber  dislikes  a  sheriff,  or  a 
thief  despises  the  prosecuting  witness.  Tyranny 
likes  courtiers,  flatterers,  followers,  fawners,  and 
superstition  wants  believers,  disciples,  zealots, 
hypocrites,  and  subscribers.  The  church  demands 
worship  —  the  very  thing  that  man  should  give 
to  no  being,  human  or  divine.  To  worship  an- 
other is  to  degrade  yourself.  Worship  is  awe 
and  dread  and  vague  fear  and  blind  hope.  It 
is  the  spirit  of  worship  that  elevates  the  one 
and  degrades  the  many ;  that  builds  palaces  for 
robbers,  erects  monuments  to  crime,  and  forges 
manacles  even  for  its  own  hands.  The  spirit 
of  worship  is  the  spirit  of  tyranny.  The 
worshiper  always  regrets  that  he  is  not  the 
worshiped.  We  should  all  remember  that  the 
intellect  has  no  knees,  and  that  whatever  the 
attitude  of  the  body  may  be,  the  brave  soul 
is  always  found  erect.  Whoever  worships,  abdi- 
cates. Whoever  believes  at  the  command  of 
power,  tramples  his  own  individuality  beneath  his 


176  INDIVIDUALITY. 

feet,  and  voluntarily  robs  himself  of  all  that  ren- 
ders man  superior  to  the  brute. 

The  despotism  of  faith  is  justified  upon  the 
ground  that  Christian  countries  are  the  grandest 
and  most  prosperous  of  the  world.  At  one  time 
the  same  thing  could  have  been  truly  said  in 
India,  in  Egypt,  in  Greece,  in  Rome,  and  in  every 
other  country  that  has,  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  swept  to  empire.  This  argument  proves 
too  much  not  only,  but  the  assumption  upon 
which  it  is  based  is  utterly  false.  Numberless 
circumstances  and  countless  conditions  have  pro- 
duced the  prosperity  of  the  Christian  world.  The 
truth  is,  we  have  advanced  in  spite  of  religious 
zeal,  ignorance,  and  opposition.  The  church  has 
won  no  victories  for  the  rights  of  man.  Luther 
labored  to  reform  the  church  —  Voltaire,  to  re- 
form men.  Over  every  fortress  of  tyranny  has 
waved,  and  still  waves,  the  banner  of  the  church. 
Wherever  brave  blood  has  been  shed,  the  sword 
of  the  church  has  been  wet.  On  every  chain  has 
been  the  sign  of  the  cross.  The  altar  and  throne 
have  leaned  against  and  supported  each  other. 

All  that  is  good  in  our  civilization  is  the  result 
of  commerce,  climate,  soil,  geographical   position, 


INDIVIDUALITY.  177 

industry,  invention,  discovery,  art,  and  science. 
The  church  has  been  the  enemy  of  progress,  for 
the  reason  that  it  has  endeavored  to  prevent  man 
thinking  for  himself.  To  prevent  thought  is  to 
prevent  all  advancement  except  in  the  direction 
of  faith. 

Who  can  imagine  the  infinite  impudence  of 
a  church  assuming  to  think  for  the  human  race? 
Who  can  imagine  the  infinite  impudence  of  a 
church  that  pretends  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of 
God,  and  in  his  name  threatens  to  inflict  eternal 
punishment  upon  those  who  honestly  reject  its 
claims  and  scorn  its  pretensions  ?  By  what  right 
does  a  man,  or  an  organization  of  men,  or  a  god, 
claim  to  hold  a  brain  in  bondage  ?  When  a  fact 
can  be  demonstrated,  force  is  unnecessary ;  when 
it  cannot  be  demonstrated,  an  appeal  to  force  is 
infamous.  In  the  presence  of  the  unknown  all 
have  an  equal  right  to  think. 

Over  the  vast  plain,  called  life,  we  are  all 
travelers,  and  not  one  traveler  is  perfectly  certain 
that  he  is  going  in  the  right  direction.  True  it 
is  that  no  other  plain  is  so  well  supplied  with 
guide-boards.  At  every  turn  and  crossing  you  will 
find  them,  and  upon  each  one  is  written  the  exact 


178  INDIVIDUALITY. 

direction  and  distance.  One  great  trouble  is, 
however,  that  these  boards  are  all  different,  and 
the  result  is  that  most  travelers  are  confused  in 
proportion  to  the  number  they  read.  Thousands 
of  people  are  around  each  of  these  signs,  and 
each  one  is  doing  his  best  to  convince  the  trav- 
eler that  his  particular  board  is  the  only  one 
upon  which  the  least  reliance  can  be  placed,  and 
that  if  his  road  is  taken  the  reward  for  so  doing 
will  be  infinite  and  eternal,  while  all  the  other 
roads  are  said  to  lead  to  hell,  and  all  the  makers 
of  the  other  guide-boards  are  declared  to  be 
heretics,  hypocrites  and  liars.  "  Well,"  says  a  trav- 
eler, "  you  may  be  right  in  what  you  say,  but  allow 
me  at  least  to  read  some  of  the  other  directions 
and  examine  a  little  into  their  claims.  I  wish  to 
rely  a  little  upon  my  own  judgment  in  a  matter  of 
so  great  importance."  "  No,  sir,"  shouts  the  zealot, 
"  that  is  the  very  thing  you  are  not  allowed  to  do. 
You  must  go  my  way  without  investigation,  or 
you  are  as  good  as  damned  already."  "  Well," 
says  the  traveler,  "  if  that  is  so,  I  believe  I  had 
better  go  your  way."  And  so  most  of  them  go 
along,  taking  the  word  of  those  who  know  as  little 
as  themselves.     Now  and  then  comes  one  who>  in 


INDIVIDUALITY.  179 

spite  of  all  threats,  calmly  examines  the  claims  of 
all,  and  as  calmly  rejects  them  all.  These  trav- 
elers take  roads  of  their  own,  and  are  denounced 
by  all  the  others,  as  infidels  and  atheists. 

Around  all  of  these  guide-boards,  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  reach,  the  ground  is  covered  with 
mountains  of  human  bones,  crumbling  and  bleach- 
ing in  the  rain  and  sun.  They  are  the  bones  of 
murdered  men  and  women  —  fathers,  mothers  and 
babes. 

In  my  judgment,  every  human  being  should 
take  a  road  of  his  own.  Every  mind  should  be 
true  to  itself — should  think,  investigate  and  con- 
clude for  itself.  This  is  a  duty  alike  incumbent 
upon  pauper  and  prince.  Every  soul  should 
repel  dictation  and  tyranny,  no  matter  from  what 
source  they  come  —  from  earth  or  heaven,  from 
men  or  gods.  Besides,  every  traveler  upon  this 
vast  plain  should  give  to  every  other  traveler  his 
best  idea  as  to  the  road  that  should  be  taken. 
Each  is  entitled  to  the  honest  opinion  of  all. 
And  there  is  but  one  way  to  get  an  honest 
opinion  upon  any  subject  whatever.  The  person 
giving  the  opinion  must  be  free  from  fear.  The 
merchant  must  not  fear  to   lose  his   custom,  the 


180  INDIVIDUALITY: 

doctor  his  practice,  nor  the  preacher  his  pulpit 
There  can  be  no  advance  without  liberty.  Sup- 
pression of  honest  inquiry  is  retrogression,  and 
must  end  in  intellectual  night.  The  tendency  of 
orthodox  religion  to-day  is  toward  mental  slavery 
and  barbarism.  Not  one  of  the  orthodox  minis- 
ters dare  preach  what  he  thinks  if  he  knows 
a  majority  of  his  congregation  think  otherwise. 
He  knows  that  every  member  of  his  church  stands 
guard  over  his  brain  with  a  creed,  like  a  club,  in 
his  hand.  He  knows  that  he  is  not  expected  to 
search  after  the  truth,  but  that  he  is  employed  to 
defend  the  creed.  Every  pulpit  is  a  pillory,  in 
which  stands  a  hired  culprit,  defending  the  justice 
of  his  own  imprisonment. 

Is  it  desirable  that  all  should  be  exactly  alike 
in  their  religious  convictions }  Is  any  such  thing 
possible?  Do  we  not  know  that  there  are  no 
two  persons  alike  in  the  whole  world  }  No  two 
trees,  no  two  leaves,  no  two  anythings  that  are 
alike?  Infinite  diversity  is  the  law.  Religion 
tries  to  force  all  minds  into  one  mould.  Knowing 
that  all  cannot  believe,  the  church  endeavors  to 
make  all  say  they  believe.  She  longs  for  the 
unity  of  hypocrisy,  and  detests  the  splendid  diver- 
sity of  individuality  and  freedom. 


INDIVIDUALITY.  181 

Nearly  all  people  stand  in  great  horror  of  an- 
nihilation, and  yet  to  give  up  your  individuality 
is  to  annihilate  yourself.  Mental  slavery  is  men- 
tal death,  and  every  man  who  has  given  up  his 
intellectual  freedom  is  the  living  coffin  of  his  dead 
soul.  In  this  sense,  every  church  is  a  cemetery 
and  every  creed  an  epitaph. 

We  should  all  remember  that  to  be  like  other 
people  is  to  be  unlike  ourselves,  and  that  nothing 
can  be  more  detestable  in  character  than  servile 
imitation.  The  great  trouble  with  imitation  is, 
that  we  are  apt  to  ape  those  who  are  in  reality 
far  below  us.  After  all,  the  poorest  bargain  that 
a  human  being  can  make,  is  to  give  his  individu- 
ality for  what  is  called  respectability. 

There  is  no  saying  more  degrading  than  this : 
"  It  is  better  to  be  the  tail  of  a  lion  than  the  head 
of  a  dog."  It  is  a  responsibility  to  think  and 
act  for  yourself  Most  people  hate  responsibil- 
ity; therefore  they  join  something  and  become 
the  tail  of  some  lion.  They  say,  "  My  party  can 
act  for  me — my  church  can  do  my  thinking.  It 
is  enough  for  me  to  pay  taxes  and  obey  the  lion 
to  which  I  belong,  without  troubling  myself  about 
the  right,  the  wrong,  or  the  why  or  the  wherefore 


182  INDIVIDUALITY. 

of  anything  whatever."  These  people  are  respect- 
able. They  hate  reformers,  and  dislike  exceed- 
ingly to  have  their  minds  disturbed.  They  regard 
convictions  as  very  disagreeable  things  to  have. 
They  love  forms,  and  enjoy,  beyond  everything 
else,  telling  what  a  splendid  tail  their  lion  has, 
and  what  a  troublesome  dog  their  neighbor  is. 
Besides  this  natural  inclination  to  avoid  personal 
responsibility,  is  and  always  has  been,  the  fact, 
that  every  religionist  has  warned  men  against 
the  presumption  and  wickedness  of  thinking  for 
themselves.  The  reason  has  been  denounced  by 
all  Christendom  as  the  only  unsafe  guide.  The 
church  has  left  nothing  undone  to  prevent  man 
following  the  logic  of  his  brain.  The  plainest 
facts  have  been  covered  with  the  mantle  of  mys- 
tery. The  grossest  absurdities  have  been  de- 
clared to  be  self-evident  facts.  The  order  of  na- 
ture has  been,  as  it  were,  reversed,  that  the  hypo- 
critical few  might  govern  the  honest  many.  The 
man  who  stood  by  the  conclusion  of  his  reason 
was  denounced  as  a  scorner  and  hater  of  God 
and  his  holy  church.  From  the  organization  of 
the  first  church  until  this  moment,  to  think  your 
own   thoughts   has   been    inconsistent   with  mem- 


INDIVIDUALITY.  183 

bership.  Every  member  has  borne  the  marks  of 
collar,  and  chain,  and  whip.  No  man  ever  seri- 
ously attempted  to  reform  a  church  without  being 
cast  out  and  hunted  down  by  the  hounds  of  hy- 
pocrisy. The  highest  crime  against  a  creed  is  to 
change  it.     Reformation  is  treason. 

Thousands  of  young  men  are  being  educated 
at  this  moment  by  the  various  churches.  What 
for?  In  order  that  they  may  be  prepared  to  in- 
vestigate the  phenomena  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded ?  No  !  The  object,  and  the  only  object, 
is  that  they  may  be  prepared  to  defend  a  creed ; 
that  they  may  learn  the  arguments  of  their  re- 
spective churches,  and  repeat  them  in  the  dull 
ears  of  a  thoughtless  congregation.  If  one,  after 
being  thus  trained  at  the  expense  of  the  Meth- 
odists, turns  Presbyterian  or  Baptist,  he  is  de- 
nounced as  an  ungrateful  wretch.  Honest  inves- 
tigation is  utterly  impossible  within  the  pale  of 
any  church,  for  the  reason,  that  if  you  think  the 
church  is  right  you  will  not  investigate,  and  if 
you  think  it  wrong,  the  church  will  investigate 
you.  The  consequence  of  this  is,  that  most  of 
the  theological  literature  is  the  result  of  sup- 
pression, of  fear,  tyranny  and  hypocrisy. 


184  INDIVIDUALITY. 

Every  orthodox  writer  necessarily  said  to  him- 
self, "  If  I  write  that,  my  wife  and  children  may 
want  for  bread.  I  will  be  covered  with  shame 
and  branded  with  infamy ;  but  if  I  write  this,  I 
will  gain  position,  power,  and  honor.  My  church 
rewards  defenders,  and  burns  reformers." 

Under  these  conditions  all  your  Scotts,  Hen- 
rys, and  McKnights  have  written ;  and  weighed 
in  these  scales,  what  are  their  commentaries 
worth  ?  They  are  not  the  ideas  and  decisions  of 
honest  judges,  but  the  sophisms  of  the  paid  at- 
torneys of  superstition.  Who  can  tell  what  the 
world  has  lost  by  this  infamous  system  of  sup- 
pression ?  How  many  grand  thinkers  have  died 
with  the  mailed  hand  of  superstition  upon  their 
lips?  How  many  splendid  ideas  have  perished 
in  the  cradle  of  the  brain,  strangled  in  the  poi- 
son-coils of  that  python,  the  Church ! 

For  thousands  of  years  a  thinker  was  hunted 
down  like  an  escaped  convict.  To  him  who  had 
braved  the  church,  every  door  was  shut,  every 
knife  was  open.  To  shelter  him  from  the  wild 
storm,  to  give  him  a  crust  when  dying,  to  put  a 
cup  of  water  to  his  cracked  and  bleeding  lips ; 
these    were    all    crimes,  not    one    of   which    the 


INDIVIDUALITY.  185 

church  ever  did  forgive ;  and  with  the  justice 
taught  of  her  God,  his  helpless  children  were  ex- 
terminated as  scorpions  and  vipers. 

Who  at  the  present  day  can  imagine  the 
courage,  the  devotion  to  principle,  the  intellectual 
and  moral  grandeur  it  once  required  to  be  an  in- 
fidel, to  brave  the  church,  her  racks,  her  fagots, 
her  dungeons,  her  tongues  of  fire,  —  to  defy  and 
scorn  her  heaven  and  her  hell  —  her  devil  and  her 
God?  They  were  the  noblest  sons  of  earth. 
They  were  the  real  saviors  of  our  race,  the  de- 
stroyers of  superstition  and  the  creators  of  Sci- 
ence. They  were  the  real  Titans  who  bared  their 
grand  foreheads  to  all  the  thunderbolts  of  all  the 
gods. 

The  church  has  been,  and  still  is,  the  great 
robber.  She  has  rifled  not  only  the  pockets  but 
the  brains  of  the  world.  She  is  the  stone  at  the 
sepulchre  of  liberty ;  the  upas  tree,  in  whose 
shade  the  intellect  of  man  has  withered ;  the  Gor- 
gon beneath  whose  gaze  the  human  heart  has 
turned  to  stone.  Under  her  influence  even  the 
Protestant  mother  expects  to  be  happy  in  heaven, 
while  her  brave  boy,  who  fell  fighting  for  the 
rights  of  man,  shall  writhe  in  hell. 


186  INDIVIDUALITY. 

It  is  said  that  some  of  the  Indian  tribes  place 
the  heads  of  their  children  between  pieces  of 
bark  until  the  form  of  the  skull  is  permanently 
changed.  To  us  this  seems  a  most  shocking 
custom ;  and  yet,  after  all,  is  it  as  bad  as  to  put 
the  souls  of  our  children  in  the  strait-jacket  of  a 
creed  ?  to  so  utterly  deform  their  minds  that  they 
regard  the  God  of  the  Bible  as  a  being  of  infinite 
mercy,  and  really  consider  it  a  virtue  to  believe  a 
thing  just  because  it  seems  unreasonable  ?  Every 
child  in  the  Christian  world  has  uttered  its  won- 
dering protest  against  this  outrage.  All  the 
machinery  of  the  church  is  constantly  employed 
in  corrupting  the  reason  of  children.  In  every  pos- 
sible way  they  are  robbed  of  their  own  thoughts 
and  forced  to  accept  the  statements  of  others. 
Every  Sunday  school  has  for  its  object  the 
crushing  out  of  every  germ  of  individuality.  The 
poor  children  are  taught  that  nothing  can  be 
more  acceptable  to  God  than  unreasoning  obe- 
dience and  eyeless  faith,  and  that  to  believe  God 
did  an  impossible  act,  is  far  better  than  to 
do  a  good  one  yourself.  They  are  told  that  all 
religions  have  been  simply  the  John-the-Bap- 
tists  of  ours  ;  that  all  the  gods  of  antiquity  have 


INDIVIDUALITY.  187 

withered  and  shrunken  into  the  Jehovah  of  the 
Jews ;  that  all  the  longings  and  aspirations  of 
the  race  are  realized  in  the  motto  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance,  "  Liberty  in  non-essentials ;"  that 
all  there  is,  or  ever  was,  of  religion  can  be  found 
in  the  apostles'  creed ;  that  there  is  nothing  left 
to  be  discovered ;  that  all  the  thinkers  are  dead, 
and  all  the  living  should  simply  be  believers ;  that 
we  have  only  to  repeat  the  epitaph  found  on  the 
grave  of  wisdom  ;  that  grave-yards  are  the  best 
possible  universities,  and  that  the  children  must 
be  forever  beaten  with  the  bones  of  the  fathers. 

It  has  always  seemed  absurd  to  suppose  that 
a  god  would  choose  for  his  companions,  during  all 
eternity,  the  dear  souls  whose  highest  and  only 
ambition  is  to  obey.  He  certainly  would  now  and 
then  be  tempted  to  make  the  same  remark  made 
by  an  English  gentleman  to  his  poor  guest.  The 
gentleman  had  invited  a  man  in  humble  circum- 
stances to  dine  with  him.  The  man  was  so  over- 
come with  the  honor  that  to  everything  the 
gentleman  said  he  replied  "  Yes."  Tired  at  last 
with  the  monotony  of  acquiescence,  the  gentle- 
man cried  out,  "  For  God's  sake,  my  good  man, 
say  '  No,' just  once,  so  there  will  be  two  of  us." 


188  INDIVIDUALITY. 

Is  it  possible  that  an  infinite  God  created  this 
world  simply  to  be  the  dwelling-place  of  slaves 
and  serfs?  simply  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
orthodox  Christians  ?  That  he  did  a  few  miracles 
to  astonish  them ;  that  all  the  evils  of  life  are 
simply  his  punishments,  and  that  he  is  finally 
going  to  turn  heaven  into  a  kind  of  religious 
museum  filled  with  Baptist  barnacles,  petrified 
Presbyterians  and  Methodist  mummies  ?  I  want 
no  heaven  for  which  I  must  give  my  reason ;  no 
happiness  in  exchange  for  my  liberty,  and  no 
immortality  that  demands  the  surrender  of  my 
individuality.  Better  rot  in  the  windowless  tomb, 
to  which  there  is  no  door  but  the  red  mouth  of 
the  pallid  worm,  than  wear  the  jeweled  collar 
even  of  a  god. 

Religion  does  not,  and  cannot,  contemplate 
man  as  free.  She  accepts  only  the  homage  of  the 
prostrate,  and  scorns  the  offerings  of  those  who 
stand  erect.  She  cannot  tolerate  the  liberty  of 
thought.  The  wide  and  sunny  fields  belong  not 
to  her  domain.  The  star-lit  heights  of  genius 
and  individuality  are  above  and  beyond  her 
appreciation  and  power.  Her  subjects  cringe  at 
her    feet,   covered   with    the    dust   of    obedience. 


INDIVIDUALITY.  189 

They  are  not  athletes  standing  posed  by  rich  Hfe 
and  brave  endeavor  like  antique  statues,  but 
shriveled  deformities,  studying  with  furtive  glance 
the  cruel  face  of  power. 

No  religionist  seems  capable  of  comprehending 
this  plain  truth.  There  is  this  difference  between 
thought  and  action :  for  our  actions  we  are  re- 
sponsible to  ourselves  and  to  those  injuriously 
affected ;  for  thoughts,  there  can,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  be  no  responsibility  to  gods  or  men,  here 
or  hereafter.  And  yet  the  Protestant  has  vied 
with  the  Catholic  in  denouncing  freedom  of 
thought ;  and  while  I  was  taught  to  hate  Cathol- 
icism with  every  drop  of  my  blood,  it  is  only 
justice  to  say,  that  in  all  essential  particulars  it 
is  precisely  the  same  as  every  other  religion. 
Luther  denounced  mental  liberty  with  all  the 
coarse  and  brutal  vigor  of  his  nature;  Calvin 
despised,  from  the  very  bottom  of  his  petrified 
heart,  anything  that  even  looked  like  religious 
toleration,  and  solemnly  declared  that  to  ad- 
vocate it  was  to  crucify  Christ  afresh.  All  the 
founders  of  all  the  orthodox  churches  have  ad- 
vocated the  same  infamous  tenet.  The  truth  is, 
that  what  is  called  religion  is  necessarily  in- 
consistent with  free  thought 


190  INDIVIDUALITY. 

A  believer  is  a  bird  in  a  cage,  a  Freethinker 
is  an  eagle  parting  the  clouds  with   tireless  wing. 

At  present,  owing  to  the  inroads  that  have 
been  made  by  liberals  and  infidels,  most  of  the 
churches  pretend  to  be  in  favor  of  religious 
liberty.  Of  these  churches,  we  will  ask  this 
question  :  How  can  a  man,  who  conscientiously 
believes  in  religious  liberty,  worship  a  God  who 
does  not  ?  They  say  to  us  :  "  We  will  not  im- 
prison you  on  account  of  your  belief,  but  our 
God  will."  *•  We  will  not  burn  you  because  you 
throw  away  the  sacred  Scriptures,  but  their  author 
will."  "  We  think  it  an  infamous  crime  to  per- 
secute our  brethren  for  opinion's  sake, — but  the 
God,  whom  we  ignorantly  worship,  will  on  that 
account,  damn  his  own  children  forever." 

Why  is  it  that  these  Christians  not  only  detest 
the  infidels,  but  cordially  despise  each  other? 
Why  do  they  refuse  to  worship  in  the  temples  of 
each  other  ?  Why  do  they  care  so  little  for  the 
damnation  of  men,  and  so  much  for  the  baptism 
of  children  ?  Why  will  they  adorn  their  churches 
with  the  money  of  thieves  and  flatter  vice  for 
the  sake  of  subscriptions  ?  Why  will  they  at- 
tempt to  bribe  Science  to  certify  to  the  writings 


INDIVIDUALITY.  191 

of  God  ?  Why  do  they  torture  the  words  of  the 
great  into  an  acknowledgment  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity  ?  Why  do  they  stand  with  hat  in 
hand  before  presidents,  kings,  emperors,  and 
scientists,  begging,  Hke  Lazarus,  for  a  few  crumbs 
of  religious  comfort?  Why  are  they  so  delighted 
to  find  an  allusion  to  Providence  in  the  message 
of  Lincoln  ?  Why  are  they  so  afraid  that  some 
one  will  find  out  that  Paley  wrote  an  essay  in 
favor  of  the  Epicurean  philosophy,  and  that  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  was  once  an  infidel  ?  Why  are 
they  so  anxious  to  show  that  Voltaire  recanted ; 
that  Paine  died  palsied  with  fear ;  that  the 
Emperor  Julian  cried  out  "  Galilean,  thou  hast 
conquered "  ;  that  Gibbon  died  a  Catholic ;  that 
Agassiz  had  a  little  confidence  in  Moses ;  that 
the  old  Napoleon  was  once  complimentary  enough 
to  say  that  he  thought  Christ  greater  than  him- 
self or  Csesar  ;  that  Washington  was  caught  on 
his  knees  at  Valley  Forge  ;  that  blunt  old  Ethan 
Allen  told  his  child  to  believe  the  religion  of 
her  mother  ;  that  Franklin  said,  "  Don't  unchain 
the  tiger,"  and  that  Volney  got  frightened  in  a 
storm  at  sea? 

Is   it   because  the  foundation  of  their   temple 
is  crumbling,  because  the  walls  are    cracked,  the 


193  INDIVIDUALITY. 

pillars  leaning,  the  great  dome  swaying  to  its  fall, 
and  because  Science  has  written  over  the  high 
altar  its  mene,  mene,  tekel,  upharsin  —  the  old 
words,  destined  to  be  the  epitaph  of  all  relig- 
ions ? 

Every  assertion  of  individual  independence  has 
been  a  step  toward  infidelity.  Luther  started 
toward  Humboldt, — Wesley,  toward  John  Stuart 
Mill.  To  really  reform  the  church  is  to  destroy 
it.  Every  new  religion  has  a  little  less  supersti- 
tion than  the  old,  so  that  the  religion  of  Science 
is  but  a  question  of  time. 

I  will  not  say  the  church  has  been  an  unmiti- 
gated evil  in  all  respects.  Its  history  is  infamous 
and  glorious.  It  has  delighted  in  the  production 
of  extremes.  It  has  furnished  murderers  for  its 
own  martyrs.  It  has  sometimes  fed  the  body,  but 
has  always  starved  the  soul.  It  has  been  a  char- 
itable highwayman  —  a  profligate  beggar — a  gen- 
erous pirate.  It  has  produced  some  angels  and 
a  multitude  of  devils.  It  has  built  more  prisons 
than  asylums.  It  made  a  hundred  orphans  while 
it  cared  for  one.  In  one  hand  it  has  carried 
the  alms-dish  and  in  the  other  a  sword.  It 
has  founded  schools  and  endowed  universities  for 


INDIVIDUALITY.  193 

the  purpose  of  destroying  true  learning.  It  filled 
the  world  with  hypocrites  and  zealots,  and  upon 
the  cross  of  its  own  Christ  it  crucified  the  indi- 
viduality of  man.  It  has  sought  to  destroy  the 
independence  of  the  soul  and  put  the  world  upon 
its  knees.  This  is  its  crime.  The  commission  of 
this  crime  was  necessary  to  its  existence.  In  or- 
der to  compel  obedience  it  declared  that  it  had 
the  truth,  and  all  the  truth;  that  God  had  made 
it  the  keeper  of  his  secrets ;  his  agent  and  his 
vicegerent.  It  declared  that  all  other  religions 
were  false  and  infamous.  It  rendered  all  com- 
promise impossible  and  all  thought  superfluous. 
Thought  was  its  enemy,  obedience  was  its  friend. 
Investigation  was  fraught  with  danger;  therefore 
investigation  was  suppressed.  The  holy  of  holies 
was  behind  the  curtain.  All  this  was  upon  the 
principle  that  forgers  hate  to  have  the  signature 
examined  by  an  expert,  and  that  imposture  de- 
tests curiosity. 

"He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 
has  always  been  the  favorite  text  of  the    church. 

In  short,  Christianity  has  always  opposed 
every  forward  movement  of  the  human  race. 
Across  the   highway    of   progress    it   has   always 


194  INDIVIDUALITY. 

been  building  breastworks  of  Bibles,  tracts,  com- 
mentaries, prayer-books,  creeds,  dogmas  and  plat- 
forms, and  at  every  advance  the  Christians  have 
gathered  together  behind  these  heaps  of  rubbish 
and  shot  the  poisoned  arrows  of  malice  at  the 
soldiers  of  freedom. 

And  even  the  liberal  Christian  of  to-day  has 
his  holy  of  holies,  and  in  the  niche  of  the  temple 
of  his  heart  has  his  idol.  He  still  clings  to  a 
part  of  the  old  superstition,  and  all  the  pleasant 
memories  of  the  old  belief  linger  in  the  horizon 
of  his  thoughts  like  a  sunset.  We  associate  the 
memory  of  those  we  love  with  the  religion  of 
our  childhood.  It  seems  almost  a  sacrilege  to 
rudely  destroy  the  idols  that  our  fathers  wor- 
shiped, and  turn  their  sacred  and  beautiful  truths 
into  the  fables  of  barbarism.  Some  throw  away 
the  Old  Testament  and  cling  to  the  New,  while 
others  give  up  everything  except  the  idea  that 
there  is  a  personal  God,  and  that  in  some  won- 
derful way  we  are  the  objects  of  his  care. 

Even  this,  in  my  opinion,  as  Science,  the  great 
iconoclast,  marches  onward,  will  have  to  be  aban- 
doned with  the  rest.  The  great  ghost  will  surely 
share   the  fate    of   the    little  ones.      They  fled    at 


INDIVIDUALITY.  195 

the  first  appearance  of  the  dawn,  and  the  other 
will  vanish  with  the  perfect  day.  Until  then  the 
independence  of  man  is  little  more  than  a 
dream.  Overshadowed  by  an  immense  person- 
ality, in  the  presence  of  the  irresponsible  and 
the  infinite,  the  individuality  of  man  is  lost,  and 
he  falls  prostrate  in  the  very  dust  of  fear.  Be- 
neath the  frown  of  the  absolute,  man  stands  a 
wretched,  trembling  slave,  —  beneath  his  smile  he 
is  at  best  only  a  fortunate  serf  Governed  by  a 
being  whose  arbitrary  will  is  law,  chained  to  the 
chariot  of  power,  his  destiny  rests  in  the  pleasure 
of  the  unknown.  Under  these  circumstances, 
what  wretched  object  can  he  have  in  lengthening 
out  his  aimless  life  } 

And  yet,  in  most  minds,  there  is  a  vague  fear 
of  the  gods  —  a  shrinking  from  the  malice  of  the 
skies.  Our  fathers  were  slaves,  and  nearly  all 
their  children  are  mental  serfs.  The  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  soul  is  a  slow  and  painful  process. 
Superstition,  the  mother  of  those  hideous  twins. 
Fear  and  Faith,  from  her  throne  of  skulls,  still 
rules  the  world,  and  will  until  the  mind  of  woman 
ceases  to  be  the  property  of  priests. 


196  INDIVIDUALITY. 

When  women  reason,  and  babes  sit  in  the  lap 
of  philosophy,  the  victory  of  reason  over  the 
shadowy  host  of  darkness  will  be  complete. 

In  the  minds  of  many,  long  after  the  intellect 
has  thrown  aside  as  utterly  fabulous  the  legends 
of  the  church,  there  still  remains  a  lingering 
suspicion,  born  of  the  mental  habits  contracted 
in  childhood,  that  after  all  there  may  be  a  grain 
of  truth  in  these  mountains  of  theological  mist, 
and  that  possibly  the  superstitious  side  is  the 
side  of  safety. 

A  gentleman,  walking  among  the  ruins  of 
Athens,  came  upon  a  fallen  statue  of  Jupiter ; 
making  an  exceedingly  low  bow  he  said :  "  O  Ju- 
piter !  I  salute  thee."  He  then  added :  "  Should 
you  ever  sit  upon  the  throne  of  heaven  again, 
do  not,  I  pray  you,  forget  that  I  treated  you  po- 
litely when  you  were  prostrate." 

We  have  all  been  taught  by  the  church  that 
nothing  is  so  well  calculated  to  excite  the  ire  of 
the  Deity  as  to  express  a  doubt  as  to  his  exist- 
ence, and  that  to  deny  it  is  an  unpardonable  sin. 
Numerous  well-attested  instances  are  referred  to 
of  atheists  being  struck  dead  for  denying  the 
existence  of  God.     According   to   these    religious 


INDIVID  UALITY.  197 


people,  God  is  infinitely  above  us  in  every  respect, 
infinitely  merciful,  and  yet  he  cannot  bear  to  hear 
a  poor  finite  man  honestly  question  his  existence. 
Knowing,  as  he  does,  that  his  children  are  groping 
in  darkness  and  struggling  with  doubt  and  fear ; 
knowing  that  he  could  enlighten  them  if  he  would, 
he  still  holds  the  expression  of  a  sincere  doubt 
as  to  his  existence,  the  most  infamous  of  crimes. 
According  to  orthodox  logic,  God  having  fur- 
nished us  with  imperfect  minds,  has  a  right  to 
demand  a  perfect  result. 

Suppose  Mr.  Smith  should  overhear  a  couple 
of  small  bugs  holding  a  discussion  as  to  the  ex- 
istence of  Mr.  Smith,  and  suppose  one  should 
have  the  temerity  to  declare,  upon  the  honor  of 
a  bug,  that  he  had  examined  the  whole  question 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  including  the  argument 
based  upon  design,  and  had  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  no  man  by  the  name  of  Smith  had 
ever  lived.  Think  then  of  Mr.  Smith  flying  into 
an  ecstasy  of  rage,  crushing  the  atheist  bug  be- 
neath his  iron  heel,  while  he  exclaimed,  "  I  will 
teach  you,  blasphemous  wretch,  that  Smith  is  a 
diabolical  fact ! "  What  then  can  we  think  of  a 
God    who   would    open    the   artillery   of    heaven 


198  INDIVIDUALITY. 

upon  one  of  his  own  children  for  simply  express- 
ing his  honest  thought?  And  what  man  who 
really  thinks  can  help  repeating  the  words  of 
Ennius :  "If  there  are  gods  they  certainly  pay 
no  attention  to  the  affairs  of  man." 

Think  of  the  millions  of  men  and  women  who 
have  been  destroyed  simply  for  loving  and  wor- 
shiping this  God.  Is  it  possible  that  this  God, 
having  infinite  power,  saw  his  loving  and  heroic 
children  languishing  in  the  darkness  of  dungeons ; 
heard  the  clank  of  their  chains  when  they  lifted 
their  hands  to  him  in  the  agony  of  prayer ;  saw 
them  stretched  upon  the  bigot's  rack,  where  death 
alone  had  pity;  saw  the  serpents  of  flame  crawl 
hissing  round  their  shrinking  forms  —  saw  all  this 
for  sixteen  hundred  years,  and  sat  as  silent  as  a 
stone  ? 

From  such  a  God,  why  should  man  expect 
assistance.?  Why  should  he  waste  his  days  in 
fruitless  prayer?  Why  should  he  fall  upon  his 
knees  and  implore  a  phantom  —  a  phantom  that 
is  deaf,  and  dumb,  and  blind  ? 

Although  we  live  in  what  is  called  a  free  gov- 
ernment, —  and  politically  we  are  free,  —  there  is 
but   little    religious    liberty   in    America.     Society 


INDIVIDUALITY.  199 

demands,  either  that  you  belong  to  some  church, 
or  that  you  suppress  your  opinions.  It  is  con- 
tended by  many  that  ours  is  a  Christian  govern- 
ment, founded  upon  the  Bible,  and  that  all  who 
look  upon  that  book  as  false  or  foolish  are  de- 
stroying the  foundation  of  our  country.  The 
truth  is,  our  government  is  not  founded  upon  the 
rights  of  gods,  but  upon  the  rights  of  men.  Our 
Constitution  was  framed,  not  to  declare  and  up- 
hold the  deity  of  Christ,  but  the  sacredness  of 
humanity.  Ours  is  the  first  government  made 
by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  It  is  the  only 
nation  with  which  the  gods  have  had  nothing  to 
do.  And  yet  there  are  some  judges  dishonest 
and  cowardly  enough  to  solemnly  decide  that  this 
is  a  Christian  country,  and  that  our  free  institu- 
tions are  based  upon  the  infamous  laws  of  Jeho-* 
vah.  Such  judges  are  the  Jeffries  of  the  church. 
They  believe  that  decisions,  made  by  hirelings  at 
the  bidding  of  kings,  are  binding  upon  man  for- 
ever. They  regard  old  law  as  far  superior  to 
modern  justice.  They  are  what  might  be  called 
orthodox  judges.  They  spend  their  days  in  find- 
ing out,  not  what  ought  to  be,  but  what  has  been. 
With  their  backs  to  the  sunrise  they  worship  the 


200  INDIVIDUALITY. 

night.  There  is  only  one  future  event  with  which 
they  concern  themselves,  and  that  is  their  re' 
election.  No  honest  court  ever  did,  or  ever  will, 
decide  that  our  Constitution  is  Christian.  The 
Bible  teaches  that  the  powers  that  be,  are  or- 
dained of  God.  The  Bible  teaches  that  God  is 
the  source  of  all  authority,  and  that  all  kings 
have  obtained  their  power  from  him.  Every 
tyrant  has  claimed  to  be  the  agent  of  the  Most 
High.  The  Inquisition  was  founded,  not  in  the 
name  of  man,  but  in  the  name  of  God.  All  the 
governments  of  Europe  recognize  the  greatness 
of  God,  and  the  littleness  of  the  people.  In  all 
ages,  hypocrites,  called  priests,  have  put  crowns 
upon  the  heads  of  thieves,  called  kings. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  announces 
the  sublime  truth,  that  all  power  comes  from  the 
people.  This  was  a  denial,  and  the  first  denial  of 
a  nation,  of  the  infamous  dogma  that  God  confers 
the  right  upon  one  man  to  govern  others.  It  was 
the  first  grand  assertion  of  the  dignity  of  the  hu- 
man race.  It  declared  the  governed  to  be  the 
source  of  power,  and  in  fact  denied  the  authority 
of  any  and  all  gods.  Through  the  ages  of  slav- 
ery—  through  the  weary  centuries  of  the  lash  and 


INDIVIDUALITY.  201 

chain,  God  was  the  acknowledged  ruler  of  the 
world.     To  enthrone  man,  was  to  dethrone    him. 

To  Paine,  Jefferson,  and  Franklin,  are  we 
indebted,  more  than  to  all  others,  for  a  human 
government,  and  for  a  Constitution  in  which  no 
God  is  recognized  superior  to  the  legally  expressed 
will  of  the  people. 

They  knew  that  to  put  God  in  the  Consti- 
tution was  to  put  man  out.  They  knew  that  the 
recognition  of  a  Deity  would  be  seized  upon  by 
fanatics  and  zealots  as  a  pretext  for  destroying 
the  liberty  of  thought.  They  knew  the  terrible 
history  of  the  church  too  well  to  place  in  her 
keeping,  or  in  the  keeping  of  her  God,  the  sacred 
rights  of  man.  They  intended  that  all  should 
have  the  right  to  worship,  or  not  to  worship ;  that 
our  laws  should  make  no  distinction  on  account 
of  creed.  They  intended  to  found  and  frame  a 
government  for  man,  and  for  man  alone.  They 
wished  to  preserve  the  individuality  and  liberty 
of  all ;  to  prevent  the  few  from  governing  the 
many,  and  the  many  from  persecuting  and  de- 
stroying the  few. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  the  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion  still   lingers    in    our   laws.     In    many  of  the 


202  INDI VID  UALITY. 

States,  only  those  who  believe  in  the  existence 
of  some  kind  of  God,  are  under  the  protection 
of  the  law. 

The  supreme  court  of  Illinois  decided,  in  the 
year  of  grace  1856,  that  an  unbeliever  in  the  exist- 
ence of  an  intelligent  First  Cause  could  not  be 
allowed  to  testify  in  any  court.  His  wife  and 
children  might  have  been  murdered  before  his 
very  face,  and  yet  in  the  absence  of  other  wit- 
nesses, the  murderer  could  not  have  even  been 
indicted.  The  atheist  was  a  legal  outcast.  To 
him.  Justice  was  not  only  blind,  but  deaf.  He  was 
liable,  like  other  men,  to  support  the  Government, 
and  was  forced  to  contribute  his  share  towards 
paying  the  salaries  of  the  very  judges  who  decided 
that  under  no  circumstances  could  his  voice  be 
heard  in  any  court.  This  was  the  law  of  Illinois, 
and  so  remained  until  the  adoption  of  the  new 
Constitution.  By  such  infamous  means  has  the 
church  endeavored  to  chain  the  human  mind,  and 
protect  the  majesty  of  her  God.  The  fact  is,  we 
have  no  national  religion,  and  no  national  God  ; 
but  every  citizen  is  allowed  to  have  a  religion 
and  a  God  of  his  own,  or  to  reject  all  religions 
and  deny  the  existence  of  all  gods.    The  church, 


INDIVIDUALITY.  203 

however,  never  has,  and  never  will  understand  and 
appreciate  the  genius  of  our  Government. 

Last  year,  in  a  convention  of  Protestant  bigots, 
held  in  the  city  of  New  York  for  the  purpose  of 
creating  public  opinion  in  favor  of  a  religious 
amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution,  a  reverend 
doctor  of  divinity,  speaking  of  atheists,  said : 
"What  are  the  rights  of  the  atheist?  I  would 
tolerate  him  as  I  would  tolerate  a  poor  lunatic.  I 
would  tolerate  him  as  I  would  tolerate  a  con- 
spirator. He  may  live  and  go  free,  hold  his  lands 
and  enjoy  his  home  —  he  may  even  vote;  but  for 
any  higher  or  more  advanced  citizenship,  he  is,  as 
I  hold,  utterly  disqualified."  These  are  the  senti- 
ments of  the  church  to-day. 

Give  the  church  a  place  in  the  Constitution, 
let  her  touch  once  more  the  sword  of  power,  and 
the  priceless  fruit  of  all  the  ages  will  turn  to 
ashes  on  the  lips  of  men. 

In  religious  ideas  and  conceptions  there  has 
been  for  ages  a  slow  and  steady  development.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  ladder  (speaking  of  modern 
times)  is  Catholicism,  and  at  the  top  is  Science, 
The  intermediate  rounds  of  this  ladder  are  occu- 
pied by  the  various  sects,  whose  name  is  legion. 


204  INDIVIDUALITY. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  truth  upon  any  sub- 
ject has  nothing  to  do  with  our  right  to  investigate 
that  subject,  and  express  any  opinion  we  may  form. 
All  that  I  ask,  is  the  same  right  I  freely  accord 
to  all  others. 

A  few  years  ago  a  Methodist  clergyman  took  it 
upon  himself  to  give  me  a  piece  of  friendly  advice. 
"Although  you  may  disbelieve  the  Bible,"  said  he, 
"  you  ought  not  to  say  so.  That,  you  should  keep 
to  yourself." 

"  Do  you  believe  the  Bible,"  said  I. 

He  replied,  "  Most  assuredly." 

To  which  I  retorted,  "  Your  answer  conveys  no 
information  to  me.  You  may  be  following  your 
own  advice.  You  told  me  to  suppress  my  opin- 
ions. Of  course  a  man  who  will  advise  others  to 
dissimulate  will  not  always  be  particular  about 
telling  the  truth  himself." 

There  can  be  nothing  more  utterly  subversive 
of  all  that  is  really  valuable  than  the  suppres- 
sion of  honest  thought.  No  man,  worthy  of  the 
form  he  bears,  will  at  the  command  of  church  or 
state  solemnly  repeat  a  creed    his    reason   scorns. 

It  is  the  duty  of  each  and  every  one  to  maintain 
his  individuality.     "  This  above  all,  to  thine  own- 


INDIVIDUALITY.  205 

self  be  true,  and  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the 
day,  thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man."  It 
is  a  magnijficent  thing  to  be  the  sole  proprietor  of 
yourself  It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  wake  up  at  night 
and  say,  "  There  is  nobody  in  this  bed."  It  is 
humiliating  to  know  that  your  ideas  are  all  bor- 
rowed ;  that  you  are  indebted  to  your  memory  for 
your  principles  ;  that  your  religion  is  simply  one  of 
your  habits,  and  that  you  would  have  convictions 
if  they  were  only  contagious.  It  is  mortifying  to 
feel  that  you  belong  to  a  mental  mob  and  cry 
"  crucify  him,"  because  the  others  do ;  that  you 
reap  what  the  great  and  brave  have  sown,  and  that 
you  can  benefit  the  world  only  by  leaving  it. 

Surely  every  human  being  ought  to  attain  to 
the  dignity  of  the  unit.  Surely  it  is  worth  some- 
thing to  be  one,  and  to  feel  that  the  census  of  the 
universe  would  be  incomplete  without  counting 
you.  Surely  there  is  grandeur  in  knowing  that 
in  the  realm  of  thought,  at  least,  you  are  without 
a  chain ;  that  you  have  the  right  to  explore  all 
heights  and  all  depths  ;  that  there  are  no  walls  nor 
fences,  nor  prohibited  places,  nor  sacred  corners  in 
all  the  vast  expanse  of  thought ;  that  your  intel- 
lect owes  no  allegiance  to  any  being,  human   or 


206  INDIVIDUALITY. 

divine ;  that  you  hold  all  in  fee  and  upon  no  con- 
dition and  by  no  tenure  whatever;  that  in  the 
world  of  mind  you  are  relieved  from  all  personal 
dictation,  and  from  the  ignorant  tyranny  of  ma- 
jorities. Surely  it  is  worth  something  to  feel  that 
there  are  no  priests,  no  popes,  no  parties,  no  gov- 
ernments, no  kings,  no  gods,  to  whom  your  intel- 
lect can  be  compelled  to  pay  a  reluctant  homage. 
Surely  it  is  a  joy  to  know  that  all  the  cruel 
ingenuity  of  bigotry  can  devise  no  prison,  no  dun- 
geon, no  cell  in  which  for  one  instant  to  confine  a 
thought ;  that  ideas  cannot  be  dislocated  by  racks, 
nor  crushed  in  iron  boots,  nor  burned  with  fire. 
Surely  it  is  sublime  to  think  that  the  brain  is  a 
castle,  and  that  within  its  curious  bastions  and 
winding  halls  the  soul,  in  spite  of  all  worlds  and 
all  beings,  is  the  supreme  sovereign  of  itself. 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 


Liberty,  a  Word  without  which  all  other  Words  are 

Vain. 

WHOEVER  has  an  opinion  of  his  own,  and 
honestly  expresses  it,  will  be  guilty  of 
heresy.  Heresy  is  what  the  minority  believe ;  it 
is  the  name  given  by  the  powerful  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  weak.  This  word  was  born  of  the  hatred, 
arrogance  and  cruelty  of  those  who  love  their 
enemies,  and  who,  when  smitten  on  one  cheek, 
turn  the  other.  This  word  was  born  of  intel- 
lectual slavery  in  the  feudal  ages  of  thought.  It 
was  an  epithet  used  in  the  place  of  argument 
From  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era, 
every  art  has  been  exhausted  and  every  conceiv- 
able punishment  inflicted  to  force  all  people  to 
hold  the  same  religious  opinions.  This  effort  was 
born  of  the  idea  that  a  certain  belief  was  neces- 
sary to  the  salvation  of  the  soul.     Christ  taught, 

'  (209) 


210  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

and  the  church  still  teaches,  that  unbelief  is  the 
blackest  of  crimes.  God  is  supposed  to  hate  with 
an  infinite  and  implacable  hatred,  every  heretic 
upon  the  earth,  and  the  heretics  who  have  died  are 
supposed  at  this  moment  to  be  suffering  the  ago- 
nies of  the  damned.  The  church  persecutes  the 
living  and  her  God  burns  the  dead. 

It  is  claimed  that  God  wrote  a  book  called 
the  Bible,  and  it  is  generally  admitted  that  this 
book  is  somewhat  difficult  to  understand.  As 
long  as  the  church  had  all  the  copies  of  this 
book,  and  the  people  were  not  allowed  to  read 
it,  there  was  comparatively  little  heresy  in  the 
world ;  but  when  it  was  printed  and  read,  people 
began  honestly  to  differ  as  to  its  meaning.  A 
few  were  independent  and  brave  enough  to  give 
the  world  their  real  thoughts,  and  for  the  ex- 
termination of  these  men  the  church  used  all 
her  power.  Protestants  and  Catholics  vied  with 
each  other  in  the  work  of  enslaving  the  human 
mind.  For  ages  they  were  rivals  in  the  infamous 
effort  to  rid  the  earth  of  honest  people.  They 
infested  every  country,  every  city,  town,  hamlet 
and  family.  They  appealed  to  the  worst  passions 
of   the  human  heart     They  sowed  the  seeds  of 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  %\\ 

discord  and  hatred  in  every  land.  Brother  de- 
nounced brother,  wives  informed  against  their 
husbands,  mothers  accused  their  children,  dun- 
geons were  crowded  with  the  innocent ;  the  flesh 
of  the  good  and  true  rotted  in  the  clasp  of 
chains ;  the  flames  devoured  the  heroic,  and  in 
the  name  of  the  most  merciful  God,  his  children 
Were  exterminated  with  famine,  sword,  and  fire. 
Over  the  wild  waves  of  battle  rose  and  fell  the 
banner  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  sixteen  hundred 
years  the  robes  of  the  church  were  red  with 
innocent  blood.  The  ingenuity  of  Christians  was 
exhausted  in  devising  punishment  severe  enough 
to  be  inflicted  upon  other  Christians  who  honestly 
and  sincerely  differed  with  them  upon  any  point 
whatever. 

Give  any  orthodox  church  the  power,  and 
to-day  they  would  punish  heresy  with  whip,  and 
chain,  and  fire.  As  long  as  a  church  deems  a 
certain  belief  essential  to  salvation,  just  so  long 
it  will  kill  and  burn  if  it  has  the  power.  Why 
should  the  church  pity  a  man  whom  her  God 
hates  ?  Why  should  she  show  mercy  to  a  kind 
and  noble  heretic  whom  her  God  will  burn  in 
eternal   fire?     Why  should  a  Christian  be  better 


212  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

than  his  God  ?  It  is  impossible  for  the  imagina- 
tion to  conceive  of  a  greater  atrocity  than  has 
been  perpetrated  by  the  church.  Every  nerve 
in  the  human  body  capable  of  pain  has  been 
sought  out  and  touched  by  the  church. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  all  churches  have 
persecuted  heretics  to  the  extent  of  their  power. 
Toleration  has  increased  only  when  and  where 
the  power  of  the  church  has  diminished.  From 
Augustine  until  now  the  spirit  of  the  Christians 
has  remained  the  same.  There  has  been  the  same 
intolerance,  the  same  undying  hatred  of  all  who 
think  for  themselves,  and  the  same  determination 
to  crush  out  of  the  human  brain  all  knowledge 
inconsistent  with  an  ignorant  creed. 

Every  church  pretends  that  it  has  a  revelation 
from  God,  and  that  this  revelation  must  be  given 
to  the  people  through  the  church  ;  that  the  church 
acts  through  its  priests,  and  that  ordinary  mortals 
must  be  content  with  a  revelation — not  from  God 
— but  from  the  cjiurch.  Had  the  people  submit- 
ted to  this  preposterous  claim,  of  course  there 
could  have  been  but  one  church,  and  that  church 
never  could  have  advanced.  It  might  have  retro- 
graded, because   it  is   not   necessary  to  think  or 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  213 

investigate  in  order  to  forget.  Without  heresy 
there  could  have  been  no  progress. 

The  highest  type  of  the  orthodox  Christian 
does  not  forget ;  neither  does  he  learn.  He 
neither  advances  nor  recedes.  He  is  a  living  fos- 
sil embedded  in  that  rock  called  faith.  He  makes 
no  effort  to  better  his  condition,  because  all  his 
strength  is  exhausted  in  keeping  other  people 
from  improving  theirs.  The  supreme  desire  of 
his  heart  is  to  force  all  others  to  adopt  his  creed, 
and  in  order  to  accomplish  this  object  he  de- 
nounces free  thinking  as  a  crime,  and  this  crime 
he  calls  heresy.  When  he  had  power,  heresy  was 
the  most  terrible  and  formidable  of  words.  It 
meant  confiscation,  exile,  imprisonment,  torture, 
and  death. 

In  those  days  the  cross  and  rack  were  insepa- 
rable companions.  Across  the  open  Bible  lay  the 
sword  and  fagot.  Not  content  with  burning  such 
heretics  as  were  alive,  they  even  tried  the  dead,  in 
order  that  the  church  might  rob  their  wives  and 
children.  The  property  of  all  heretics  was  confis- 
cated, and  on  this  account  they  charged  the  dead 
with  being  heretical  —  indicted,  as  it  were,  their 
dust — to   the    end   that   the    church   might   clutch 


»14  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

the  bread  of  orphans.  Learned  divines  discussed 
the  propriety  of  tearing  out  the  tongues  of  here- 
tics before  they  were  burned,  and  the  general 
opinion  was,  that  this  ought  to  be  done  so  that  the 
heretics  should  not  be  able,  by  uttering  blasphe- 
mies, to  shock  the  Christians  who  were  burning 
them.  With  a  mixture  of  ferocity  and  Christian- 
ity, the  priests  insisted  that  heretics  ought  to  be 
burned  at  a  slow  fire,  giving  as  a  reason  that  more 
time  was  given  them  for  repentance. 

No  wonder  that  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  I  came  not 
to  bring  peace,  but  a  sword." 

Every  priest  regarded  himself  as  the  agent  of 
God.  He  answered  all  questions  by  authority, 
and  to  treat  him  with  disrespect  was  an  insult 
offered  to  God.  No  one  was  asked  to  think,  but 
all  were  commanded  to  obey. 

In  1208  the  Inquisition  was  established.  Seven 
years  afterward,  the  fourth  council  of  the  Lateran 
enjoined  all  kings  and  rulers  to  swear  an  oath  that 
they  would  exterminate  heretics  from  their  domin- 
ions. The  sword  of  the  church  was  unsheathed, 
and  the  world  was  at  the  mercy  of  ignorant  and 
infuriated  priests,  whose  eyes  feasted  upon  the 
agonies  they  inflicted.     Acting,   as  they  believed, 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  215 

or  pretended  to  believe,  under  the  command  of 
God ;  stimulated  by  the  hope  of  infinite  reward  in 
another  world  —  hating  heretics  with  every  drop 
of  their  bestial  blood;  savage  beyond  description; 
merciless  beyond  conception,  —  these  infamous 
priests,  in  a  kind  of  frenzied  joy,  leaped  upon 
the  helpless  victims  of  their  rage.  They  crushed 
their  bones  in  iron  boots  ;  tore  their  quivering  flesh 
with  iron  hooks  and  pincers ;  cut  off  their  lips  and 
eyelids ;  pulled  out  their  nails,  and  into  the  bleed- 
ing quick  thrust  needles ;  tore  out  their  tongues ; 
extinguished  their  eyes ;  stretched  them  upon 
racks  ;  flayed  them  alive ;  crucified  them  with  their 
heads  downward ;  exposed  them  to  wild  beasts ; 
burned  them  at  the  stake ;  mocked  their  cries  and 
groans ;  ravished  their  wives ;  robbed  their  chil- 
dren, and  then  prayed  God  to  finish  the  holy 
work  in  hell. 

Millions  upon  millions  were  sacrificed  upon 
the  altars  of  bigotry.  The  Catholic  burned  the 
Lutheran,  the  Lutheran  burned  the  Catholic,  the 
Episcopalian  tortured  the  Presbyterian,  the  Pres- 
byterian tortured  the  Episcopalian.  Every  de- 
nomination killed  all  it  could  of  every  other ;  and 
each  Christian  felt  in  duty  bound  to  exterminate 


216  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

every  other  Christian  who  denied  the  smallest 
fraction  of  his  creed. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. —  that  pious  and 
moral  founder  of  the  apostolic  Episcopal  Church, — 
there  was  passed  by  the  parliament  of  England 
an  act  entitled  "  An  act  for  abolishing  of  diver- 
sity of  opinion."  And  in  this  act  was  set  forth 
what  a  good  Christian  was  obliged  to  believe: 

First,  That  in  the  sacrament  was  the  real  body 
and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 

Second,  That  the  body  and  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  in- the  bread,  and  the  blood  and  body 
of  Jesus  Christ  was  in  the  wine. 

Third,  That  priests  should  not  marry. 

Fourth,  That  vows  of  chastity  were  of  per- 
petual obligation. 

Fifth,  That  private  masses  ought  to  be  con- 
tinued ;  and, 

Sixth,  That  auricular  confession  to  a  priest 
must  be  maintained. 

This  creed  was  made  by  law,  in  order  that  all 
men  might  know  just  what  to  believe  by  simply 
reading  the  statute.  The  church  hated  to  see  the 
people  wearing  out  their  brains  in  thinking  upon 
these  subjects.     It  was  thought  far  better  that  a 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  217 

creed  should  be  made  by  parliament,  so  that  what- 
ever might  be  lacking  in  evidence  might  be  made 
up  in  force.  The  punishment  for  denying  the  first 
article  was  death  by  fire.  For  the  denial  of  any 
other  article,  imprisonment,  and  for  the  second 
offence — death. 

Your  attention  is  called  to  these  six  articles, 
established  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIIL,  and 
by  the  Church  of  England,  simply  because  not  one 
of  these  articles  is  believed  by  that  church  to-day. 
If  the  law  then  made  by  the  church  could  be 
enforced  now,  every  Episcopalian  would  be  burned 
at  the  stake. 

Similar  laws  were  passed  in  most  Christian 
countries,  as  all  orthodox  churches  firmly  believed 
that  mankind  could  be  legislated  into  heaven. 
According  to  the  creed  of  every  church,  slavery 
leads  to  heaven,  liberty  leads  to  hell.  It  was 
claimed  that  God  had  founded  the  church,  and 
that  to  deny  the  authority  of  the  church  was  to  be 
a  traitor  to  God,  and  consequently  an  ally  of  the 
devil.  To  torture  and  destroy  one  of  the  soldiers 
of  Satan  was  a  duty  no  good  Christian  cared  to 
neglect.  Nothing  can  be  sweeter  than  to  earn 
the  gratitude  of  God  by  killing  your  own  enemies. 
Such  a  mingling  of  profit  and  revenge,  of  heaven 


818  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

for  yourself  and  damnation  for  those  you  dislike, 
is  a  temptation  that  your  ordinary  Christian  never 
resists. 

According  to  the  theologians,  God,  the  Father 
of  us  all,  wrote  a  letter  to  his  children.  The  chil- 
dren have  always  differed  somewhat  as  to  the 
meaning  of  this  letter.  In  consequence  of  these 
honest  differences,  these  brothers  began  to  cut  out 
each  other's  hearts.  In  every  land,  where  this  let- 
ter from  God  has  been  read,  the  children  to  whom 
and  for  whom  it  was  written  have  been  filled  with 
hatred  and  malice.  They  have  imprisoned  and 
murdered  each  other,  and  the  wives  and  children 
of  each  other.  In  the  name  of  God  every  possible 
crime  has  been  committed,  every  conceivable  out- 
rage has  been  perpetrated.  Brave  men,  tender  and 
loving  women,  beautiful  girls,  and  prattling  babes 
have  been  exterminated  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  For  more  than  fifty  generations  the 
church  has  carried  the  black  flag.  Her  ven- 
geance has  been  measured  only  by  her  power. 
During  all  these  years  of  infamy  no  heretic  has 
ever  been  forgiven.  With  the  heart  of  a  fiend  she 
has  hated ;  with  the  clutch  of  avarice  she  has 
grasped ;  with  the  jaws  of  a  dragon  she  has  de- 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  219 

voured ;  pitiless  as  famine,  merciless  as  fire,  with 
the  conscience  of  a  serpent :  such  is  the  history 
of  the  Church  of  God. 

I  do  not  say,  and  I  do  not  believe,  that  Chris- 
tians are  as  bad  as  their  creeds.  In  spite  of 
church  and  dogma,  there  have  been  millions  and 
millions  of  men  and  women  true  to  the  loftiest 
and  most  generous  promptings  of  the  human 
heart.  They  have  been  true  to  their  convictions, 
and,  with  a  self  denial  and  fortitude  excelled  by 
none,  have  labored  and  suffered  for  the  salvation 
of  men.  Imbued  with  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice, 
believing  that  by  personal  effort  they  could  rescue 
at  least  a  few  souls  from  the  infinite  shadow  of 
hell,  they  have  cheerfully  endured  every  hard- 
ship and  scorned  ever^^  danger.  And  yet,  not- 
withstanding all  this,  they  believed  that  honest 
error  was  a  crime.  They  knew  that  the  Bible  so 
declared,  and  they  believed  that  all  unbelievers 
would  be  eternally  lost.  They  believed  that  re- 
ligion was  of  God.  and  all  heresy  of  the  devil. 
They  killed  heretics  in  defence  of  their  own  souls 
and  the  souls  of  their  children.  They  killed  them 
because,  according  to  their  idea,  they  were  the 
enemies  of  God,  and  because   the   Bible   teaches 


220  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

that  the  blood  of  the  unbeliever  is  a  most  accept- 
able sacrifice  to  heaven. 

Nature  never  prompted  a  loving  mother  to 
throw  her  child  into  the  Ganges.  Nature  never 
prompted  men  to  exterminate  each  other  for  a 
difference  of  opinion  concerning  the  baptism  of 
infants.  These  crimes  have  been  produced  by 
religions  filled  with  all  that  is  illogical,  cruel  and 
hideous.  These  religions  were  produced  for  the 
most  part  by  ignorance,  tyranny  and  hypocrisy. 
Under  the  impression  that  the  infinite  ruler  and 
creator  of  the  universe  had  commanded  the  de- 
struction of  heretics  and  infidels,  the  church 
perpetrated  all  these  crimes. 

Men  and  women  have  been  burned  for  think- 
ing there  is  but  one  God ;  that  there  was  none ; 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  younger  than  God;  that 
God  was  somewhat  older  than  his  son ;  for  in- 
sisting that  good  works  will  save  a  man  without 
faith ;  that  faith  will  do  without  good  works ; 
for  declaring  that  a  sweet  babe  will  not  be  burned 
eternally,  because  its  parents  failed  to  have  its 
head  wet  by  a  priest;  for  speaking  of  God  as 
though  he  had  a  nose;  for  denying  that  Christ 
was  his   own    father;    for   contending   that   three 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  221 

persons,  rightly  added  together,  make  more  than 
one ;  for  believing  in  purgatory ;  for  denying  the 
reality  of  hell ;  for  pretending  that  priests  can 
forgive  sins ;  for  preaching  that  God  is  an  es- 
sence ;  for  denying  that  witches  rode  through  the 
air  on  sticks ;  for  doubting  the  total  depravity  of 
the  human  heart ;  for  laughing  at  irresistible 
grace,  predestination  and  particular  redemption ; 
for  denying  that  good  bread  could  be  made  of 
the  body  of  a  dead  man ;  for  pretending  that  the 
pope  was  not  managing  this  world  for  God,  and 
in  the  place  of  God ;  for  disputing  the  efficacy  of  a 
vicarious  atonement;  for  thinking  the  Virgin 
Mary  was  born  like  other  people ;  for  thinking 
that  a  man's  rib  was  hardly  sufficient  to  make  a 
good-sized  woman;  for  denying  that  God  used 
his  finger  for  a  pen  ;  for  asserting  that  prayers 
are  not  answered,  that  diseases  are  not  sent  to 
punish  unbelief;  for  denying  the  authority  of  the 
Bible  ;  for  having  a  Bible  in  their  possession  ;  for 
attending  mass,  and  for  refusing  to  attend;  for 
wearing  a  surplice ;  for  carrying  a  cross,  and  for 
refusing;  for  being  a  Catholic,  and  for  being  a 
Protestant ;  for  being  an  Episcopalian,  a  Presby- 
terian, a   Baptist,  and   for  being   a   Quaker,      In 


222  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

short,  every  virtue  has  been  a  crime,  and  every 
crime  a  virtue.  The  church  has  burned  honesty 
and  rewarded  hypocrisy.  And  all  this,  because  it 
was  commanded  by  a  book — a  book  that  men 
had  been  taught  implicitly  to  believe,  long  before 
they  knew  one  word  that  was  in  it  They  had 
been  taught  that  to  doubt  the  truth  of  this  book 
—  to  examine  it,  even  —  was  a  crime  of  such  enor- 
mity that  it  could  not  be  forgiven,  either  in  this 
world  or  in  the  next. 

The  Bible  was  the  real  persecutor.  The  Bible 
burned  heretics,  built  dungeons,  founded  the  Inqui- 
sition, and  trampled  upon  all  the  liberties  of  men. 

How  long,  O  how  long  will  mankind  worship 
a  book?  How  long  will  they  grovel  in  the  dust 
before  the  ignorant  legends  of  the  barbaric  past  ? 
How  long,  O  how  long  will  they  pursue  phantoms 
in  a  darkness  deeper  than  death? 

Unfortunately  for  the  world,  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  man  by  the  name 
of  Gerard  Chauvin  was  married  to  Jeanne  Le- 
franc,  and  still  more  unfortunately  for  the  world, 
the  fruit  of  this  marriage  was  a  son,  called  John 
Chauvin,  who  afterwards  became  famous  as  John 
Calvin,  the  founder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  223 

This  man  forged  five  fetters  for  the  brain. 
These  fetters  he  called  points.  That  is  to  say, 
predestination,  particular  redemption,  total  deprav- 
ity, irresistible  grace,  and  the  perseverance  of 
the  saints.  About  the  neck  of  each  follower  he 
put  a  collar  bristling  with  these  five  iron  points. 
The  presence  of  all  these  points  on  the  collar  is 
still  the  test  of  orthodoxy  in  the  church  he 
founded.  This  man,  when  in  the  flush  of  youth, 
was  elected  to  the  office  of  preacher  in  Geneva. 
He  at  once,  in  union  with  Farel,  drew  up  a  con- 
densed statement  of  the  Presbyterian  doctrine, 
and  all  the  citizens  of  Geneva,  on  pain  of  banish- 
ment, were  compelled  to  take  an  oath  that  they 
believed  this  statement.  Of  this  proceeding  Calvin 
very  innocently  remarked  that  it  produced  great 
satisfaction.  A  man  named  Caroli  had  the  auda- 
city to  dispute  with  Calvin.  For  this  outrage  he 
was  banished. 

To  show  you  what  great  subjects  occupied 
the  attention  of  Calvin,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
state  that  he  furiously  discussed  the  question  as 
to  whether  the  sacramental  bread  should  be  leav- 
ened or  unleavened.  He  drew  up  laws  regulat- 
ing the  cut  of  the  citizens'  clothes,  and  prescribing 


224  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

their  diet,  and  all  those  whose  garments  were  not 
in  the  Calvin  fashion  were  refused  the  sacrament. 
At  last,  the  people  becoming  tired  of  this  petty 
theological  tyranny,  banished  Calvin.  In  a  few 
years,  however,  he  was  recalled  and  received  with 
great  enthusiasm.  After  this  he  was  supreme, 
and  the  will  of  Calvin  became  the  law  of  Geneva. 

Under  his  benign  administration,  James  Gruet 
was  beheaded  because  he  had  written  some  pro- 
fane verses.  The  slightest  word  against  Calvin 
or  his  absurd  doctrines  was  punished  as  a  crime. 

In  1553  a  man  was  tried  at  Vienne  by  the 
Catholic  Church  for  heresy.  He  was  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  death  by  burning.  It  was 
apparently  his  good  fortune  to  escape.  Pursued 
by  the  sleuth  hounds  of  intolerance  he  fled  to 
Geneva  for  protection.  A  dove  flying  from  hawks, 
sought  safety  in  the  nest  of  a  vulture.  This 
fugitive  from '  the  cruelty  of  Rome  asked  shelter 
from  John  Calvin,  who  had  written  a  book  in 
favor  of  religious  toleration.  Servetus  had  for- 
gotten that  this  book  was  written  by  Calvin  when 
in  the  minority;  that  it  was  written  in  weakness 
to  be  forgotten  in  power;  that  it  was  produced 
by  fear  instead  of   principle.     He  did  not   know 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  235 

that  Calvin  had  caused  his  arrest  at  Vienne,  in 
France,  and  had  sent  a  copy  of  his  work,  which 
was  claimed  to  be  blasphemous,  to  the  archbishop. 
He  did  not  then  know  that  the  Protestant  Calvin 
was  acting  as  one  of  the  detectives  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  had  been  instrumental  in 
procuring  his  conviction  for  heresy.  Ignorant  of 
all  this  unspeakable  infamy,  he  put  himself  in 
the  power  of  this  very  Calvin.  The  maker  of 
the  Presbyterian  creed  caused  the  fugitive  Serve- 
tus  to  be  arrested  for  blasphemy.  He  was  tried. 
Calvin  was  his  accuser.  He  was  convicted  and 
condemned  to  death  by  fire.  On  the  morning  of 
the  fatal  day,  Calvin  saw  him,  and  Servetus,  the 
victim,  asked  forgiveness  of  Calvin,  the  mur- 
derer. Servetus  was  bound  to  the  stake,  and 
the  fagots  were  lighted.  The  wind  carried  the 
flames  somewhat  away  from  his  body,  so  that  he 
slowly  roasted  for  hours.  Vainly  he  implored  a 
speedy  death.  At  last  the  flames  climbed  round 
his  form  ;  through  smoke  and  fire  his  murderers 
saw  a  white  heroic  face.  And  there  they  watched 
until  a  man  became  a  charred  and  shriveled  mass. 
Liberty  was  banished  from  Geneva,  and 
nothing    but    Presbyterianism    was   left.      Honor, 


326  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

justice,  mercy,  reason  and  charity  were  all  exiled; 
but  the  five  points  of  predestination,  particular 
redemption,  irresistible  grace,  total  depravity,  and 
the  certain  perseverance  of  the  saints  remained 
instead. 

Calvin  founded  a  little  theocracy,  modeled 
after  the  Old  Testament,  and  succeeded  in  erect- 
ing the  most  detestable  government  that  ever 
existed,  except  the  one  from  which  it  was  copied. 

Against  all  this  intolerance,  one  man,  a  minis- 
ter, raised  his  voice.  The  name  of  this  man 
should  never  be  forgotten.  It  was  Castalio. 
This  brave  man  had  the  goodness  and  the  cour- 
age to  declare  the  innocence  of  honest  error. 
He  was  the  first  of  the  so-called  reformers  to 
take  this  noble  ground.  I  wish  I  had  the  genius 
to  pay  a  fitting  tribute  to  his  memory.  Perhaps 
it  would  be  impossible  to  pay  him  a  grander 
compliment  '  than  to  say,  Castalio  was  in  all 
things  the  opposite  of  Calvin.  To  plead  for  the 
right  of  individual  judgment  was  considered  a 
crime,  and  Castalio  was  driven  from  Geneva  by 
John  Calvin.  By  him  he  was  denounced  as  a 
child  of  the  devil,  as  a  dog  of  Satan,  as  a  beast 
from  hell,  and  as  one  who,  by  this  horrid  blasphemy 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  227 

of  the  innocence  of  honest  error,  crucified  Christ 
afresh,  and  by  him  he  was  pursued  until  rescued 
by  the  hand  of  death. 

Upon  the  name  of  Castalio,  Calvin  heaped 
every  epithet,  until  his  malice  was  nearly  satis- 
fied and  his  imagination  entirely  exhausted.  It 
is  impossible  to  conceive  how  human  nature  can 
become  so  frightfully  perverted  as  to  pursue  a 
fellow-man  with  the  malignity  of  a  fiend,  sim- 
ply because  he  is  good,  just,  and  generous. 

Calvin  was  of  a  pallid,  bloodless  complexion, 
thin,  sickly,  irritable,  gloomy,  impatient,  egotistic, 
tyrannical,  heartless,  and  infamous.  He  was  a 
strange  compound  of  revengeful  morality,  malicious 
forgiveness,  ferocious  charity,  egotistic  humility, 
and  a  kind  of  hellish  justice.  In  other  words,  he 
was  as  near  like  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament 
as  his  health  permitted. 

The  best  thing,  however,  about  the  Presbyte- 
rians of  Geneva  was,  that  they  denied  the  power 
of  the  Pope,  and  the  best  thing  about  the  Pope 
was,  that  he  was  not  a  Presbyterian. 

The  doctrines  of  Calvin  spread  rapidly,  and 
were  eagerly  accepted  by  multitudes  on  the  conti- 
nent ;  but  Scotland,  in  a  few  years,  became  the  real 


228  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

fortress  of  Presbyterianism.  The  Scotch  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  the  same  kind  of  theoc- 
racy that  flourished  in  Geneva.  The  clergy 
took  possession  and  control  of  everybody  and 
everything.  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the 
mental  degradation,  the  abject  superstition  of  the 
people  of  Scotland  during  the  reign  of  Presbyte- 
rianism. Heretics  were  hunted  and  devoured  as 
though  they  had  been  wild  beasts.  The  gloomy 
insanity  of  Presbyterianism  took  possession  of  a 
great  majority  of  the  people.  They  regarded 
their  ministers  as  the  Jews  did  Moses  and  Aaron. 
They  believed  that  they  were  the  especial  agents 
of  God,  and  that  whatsoever  they  bound  in 
Scotland  would  be  bound  in  heaven.  There  was 
not  one  particle  of  intellectual  freedom.  No  man 
was  allowed  to  differ  with  the  church,  or  to 
even  contradict  a  priest.  Had  Presbyterianism 
maintained  its  ascendency,  Scotland  would  have 
been  peopled  by  savages  to-day. 

The  revengeful  spirit  of  Calvin  took  possession 
of  the  Puritans,  and  caused  them  to  redden  the 
soil  of  the  New  World  with  the  brave  blood  of 
honest  men.  Clinging  to  the  five  points  of  Calvin, 
they  too   established  governments  in  accordance 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  229 

with  the  teachings  of  the  Old  Testament.  They 
too  attached  the  penalty  of  death  to  the  expres- 
sion of  honest  thought.  They  too  believed  their 
church  supreme,  and  exerted  all  their  power  to 
curse  this  continent  with  a  spiritual  despotism  as 
infamous  as  it  was  absurd.  They  believed  with 
Luther  that  universal  toleration  is  universal  error, 
and  universal  error  is  universal  hell.  Toleration 
was  denounced  as  a  crime. 

Fortunately  for  us,  civilization  has  had  a  soften- 
ing effect  even  upon  the  Presbyterian  Church.  To 
the  ennobling  influence  of  the  arts  and  sciences 
the  savage  spirit  of  Calvinism  has,  in  some  slight 
degree,  succumbed.  True,  the  old  creed  remains 
substantially  as  it  was  written,  but  by  a  kind  of 
tacit  understanding  it  has  come  to  be  regarded  as 
a  relic  of  the  past.  The  cry  of  "  heresy  "  has  been 
growing  fainter  and  fainter,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
the  ministers  of  that  denomination  have  ventured, 
now  and  then,  to  express  doubts  as  to  the  damna- 
tion of  infants,  and  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity. 
The  fact  is,  the  old  ideas  became  a  little  monoton- 
ous to  the  people.  The  fall  of  man,  the  scheme  of 
redemption  and  irresistible  grace,  began  to  have  a 
familiar  sound.     The  preachers  told  the  old  stories 


230  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

while  the  congregations  slept.  Some  of  the  minis- 
ters  became  tired  of  these  stories  themselves. 
The  five  points  grew  dull,  and  they  felt  that 
nothing  short  of  irresistible  grace  could  bear  this 
endless  repetition.  The  outside  world  was  full  of 
progress,  and  in  every  direction  men  advanced^ 
while  this  church,  anchored  to  a  creed,  idly  rotted 
at  the  shore.  Other  denominations,  imbued  some 
little  with  the  spirit  of  investigation,  were  spring- 
ing up  on  every  side,  while  the  old  Presbyterian 
ark  rested  on  the  Ararat  of  the  past,  filled  with 
the  theological  monsters  of  another  age. 

Lured  by  the  splendors  of  the  outer  world, 
tempted  by  the  achievements  of  science,  longing 
to  feel  the  throb  and  beat  of  the  mighty  march 
of  the  human  race,  a  few  of  the  ministers  of  this 
conservative  denomination  were  compelled,  by 
irresistible  sense,  to  say  a  few  words  in  harmony 
with  the  splendid  ideas  of  to-day. 

These  utterances  have  upon  several  occasions 
so  nearly  wakened  some  of  the  members  that,  rub- 
bing their  eyes,  they  have  feebly  inquired  whether 
these  grand  ideas  were  not  somewhat  heretical. 
These  ministers  found  that  just  in  the  proportion 
that  their  orthodoxy  decreased,  their  congregations 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  231 

increased.  Those  who  dealt  in  the  pure  unadul- 
terated article  found  themselves  demonstrating  the 
five  points  to  a  less  number  of  hearers  than  they 
had  points.  Stung  to  madness  by  this  bitter  truth, 
this  galling  contrast,  this  harassing  fact,  the  really 
orthodox  have  raised  the  cry  of  heresy,  and  expect 
with  this  cry  to  seal  the  lips  of  honest  men.  One 
of  the  Presbyterian  ministers,  and  one  who  has 
been  enjoying  the  luxury  of  a  little  honest  thought, 
and  the  real  rapture  of  expressing  it,  has  already 
been  indicted,  and  is  about  to  be  tried  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Illinois.     He  is  charged  — 

First.  With  having  neglected  to  preach  that 
most  comforting  and  consoling  truth,  the  eternal 
damnation  of  the  soul. 

Surely,  that  man  must  be  a  monster  who  could 
wish  to  blot  this  blessed  doctrine  out  and  rob 
earth's  wretched  children  of  this  blissful  hope ! 

Who  can  estimate  the  misery  that  has  been 
caused  by  this  most  infamous  doctrine  of  eternal 
punishment.?  Think  of  the  lives  it  has  blighted — 
of  the  tears  it  has  caused — of  the  agony  it  has 
produced.  Think  of  the  millions  who  have  been 
driven  to  insanity  by  this  most  terrible  of  dogmas. 
This   doctrine  renders  God  the  basest  and   most 


332  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

cruel  being  in  the  universe.  Compared  with  him, 
the  most  frightful  deities  of  the  most  barbarous 
and  degraded  tribes  are  miracles  of  goodness  and 
mercy.  There  is  nothing  more  degrading  than  to 
worship  such  a  god.  Lower  than  this  the  soul  can 
never  sink.  If  the  doctrine  of  eternal  damnation 
is  true,  let  me  share  the  fate  of  the  unconverted; 
let  me  have  my  portion  in  hell,  rather  than  i^i 
heaven  with  a  god  infamous  enough  to  inflict 
eternal  misery  upon  any  of  the  sons  of  men. 

Second.  With  having  spoken  a  few  kind  words 
of  Robert  Collyer  and  John  Stuart  Mill. 

I  have  the  honor  of  a  slight  acquaintance  with 
Robert  Collyer.  I  have  read  with  pleasure  some 
of  his  exquisite  productions.  He  has  a  brain  full 
of  the  dawn,  the  head  of  a  philosopher,  the 
imagination  of  a  poet  and  the  sincere  heart  of  a 
child. 

Is  a  minister  to  be  silenced  because  he  speaks 
fairly  of  a  noble  and  candid  adversary?  Is  it  a 
crime  to  compliment  a  lover  of  justice,  an  advocate 
of  liberty ;  one  who  devotes  his  life  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  man,  the  discovery  of  truth,  and  the  pro- 
mulgation of  what  he  believes  to  be  right.? 

Can  that  tongue  be  palsied  by  a  presbytery 
that  praises  a  self-denying  and  heroic  life  "^     Is  it 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  233 

a  sin  to  speak  a  charitable  word  over  the  grave  of 
John  Stuart  Mill?  Is  it  heretical  to  pay  a  just 
and  graceful  tribute  to  departed  worth  ?  Must 
the  true  Presbyterian  violate  the  sanctity  of  the 
tomb,  dig  open  the  grave  and  ask  his  God  to  curse 
the  silent  dust?  Is  Presbyterianism  so  narrow 
that  it  conceives  of  no  excellence,  of  no  purity  of 
intention,  of  no  spiritual  and  moral  grandeur  out- 
side of  its  barbaric  creed?  Does  it  still  retain 
within  its  stony  heart  all  the  malice  of  its  founder  ? 
Is  it  still  warming  its  fleshless  hands  at  the  flames 
that  consumed  Servetus?  Does  it  still  glory  in 
the  damnation  of  infants,  and  does  it  still  persist 
in  emptying  the  cradle  in  order  that  perdition  may 
be  filled  ?  Is  it  still  starving  the  soul  and  famish- 
ing the  heart  ?  Is  it  still  trembling  and  shiver- 
ing, crouching  and  crawling  before  its  ignorant 
Confession  of  Faith  ? 

Had  such  men  as  Robert  Collyer  and  John 
Stuart  Mill  been  present  at  the  burning  of  Serve- 
tus, they  would  have  extinguished  the  flames  with 
their  tears.  Had  the  presbytery  of  Chicago  been 
there,  they  would  have  quietly  turned  their  backs, 
solemnly  divided  their  coat  tails,  and  warmed 
themselves. 


234  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

Third.  With   having    spoken    disparagingly   of 
the  doctrine  of  predestination. 

If  there  is  any  dogma  that  ought  to  be  pro- 
tected by  law,  predestination  is  that  doctrine. 
Surely  it  is  a  cheerful,  joyous  thing,  to  one  who  is 
laboring,  struggling,  and  suffering  in  this  weary 
world,  to  think  that  before  he  existed ;  before  the 
earth  was ;  before  a  star  had  glittered  in  the 
heavens ;  before  a  ray  of  light  had  left  the  quiver 
of  the  sun,  his  destiny  had  been  irrevocably  fixed, 
and  that  for  an  eternity  before  his  birth  he  had 
been  doomed  to  bear  eternal  pain. 

Fourth.  With  failing  to  preach  the  efficacy  of 
a  "  vicarious  sacrifice."  ' 

Suppose  a  man  had  been  convicted  of  murder, 
and  was  about  to  be  hanged — the  governor  acting 
as  the  executioner ;  and  suppose  that  just  as  the 
doomed  man  was  about  to  suffer  death  some  one 
in  the  crowd  should  step  forward  and  say,  "  I  am 
willing  to  die  in  the  place  of  that  murderer.  He 
has  a  family,  and  I  have  none."  And  suppose 
further,  that  the  governor  should  reply,  "  Come 
forward,  young  man,  your  offer  is  accepted.  A 
murder  has  been  committed  and  somebody  must 
be  hung,  and  your  death  will  satisfy  the  law  just 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  235 

as  well  as  the  death  of  the  murderer,"  What 
would  you  then  think  of  the  doctrine  of  "  vica- 
rious sacrifice"? 

This  doctrine  is  the  consummation  of  two 
outrages  —  forgiving  one  crime  and  committing 
another. 

Fifth.  With  having  inculcated  a  phase  of  the 
doctrine  commonly  known  as  "  evolution,"  or  "  de- 
velopment" 

The  church  believes  and  teaches  the  exact 
opposite  of  this  doctrine.  According  to  the 
philosophy  of  theology,  man  has  continued  to 
degenerate  for  six  thousand  years.  To  teach  that 
there  is  that  in  nature  which  impels  to  higher 
forms  and  grander  ends,  is  heresy,  of  course. 
The  Deity  will  damn  Spencer  and  his  "  Evolution," 
Darwin  and  his  "  Origin  of  Species,"  Bastian  and 
his  "Spontaneous  Generation,"  Huxley  and  his 
"  Protoplasm,"  Tyndall  and  his  "  Prayer  Gauge," 
and  will  save  those,  and  those  only,  who  declare 
that  the  universe  has  been  cursed,  from  the 
smallest  atom  to  the  grandest  star;  that  every- 
thing tends  to  evil  and  to  that  only,  and  that 
the  only  perfect  thing  in  nature  is  the  Presbyte- 
rian Confession  of  Faith. 


236  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

Sixth,  With  having  intimated  that  the  recep- 
tion of  Socrates  and  Penelope  at  heaven's  gate 
was,  to  say  the  least,  a  trifle  more  cordial  than 
that  of  Catharine  II. 

Penelope,  waiting  patiently  and  trustfully  for 
her  lord's  return,  delaying  her  suitors,  while  sadly 
tfveaving  and  unweaving  the  shroud  of  Laertes, 
is  the  most  perfect  type  of  wife  and  woman 
produced  by  the  civilization  of  Greece. 

Socrates,  whose  life  was  above  reproach  and 
whose  death  was  beyond  all  praise,  stands  to-day, 
in  the  estimation  of  every  thoughtful  man,  at 
least  the  peer  of  Christ 

Catharine  II.  assassinated  her  husband.  Step- 
ping upon  his  corpse,  she  mounted  the  throne. 
She  was  the  murderess  of  Prince  Iwan,  grand 
nephew  of  Peter  the  Great,  who  was  imprisoned 
for  eighteen  years,  and  who  during  all  that  time 
saw  the  sky  but  once.  Taken  all  in  all,  Catharine 
was  probably  one  of  the  most  intellectual  beasts 
that  ever  wore  a  crown. 

Catharine,  however,  was  the  head  of  the  Greek 
Church,  Socrates  was  a  heretic  and  Penelope  lived 
and  died  without  having  once  heard  of  "particular 
redemption"  or  of  "irresistible  grace." 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  237 

Seventh.  With  repudiating  the  idea  of  a  '*  call" 
to  the  ministry,  and  pretending  that  men  were 
"  called "  to  preach  as  they  were  to  the  other 
avocations  of  life. 

If  this  doctrine  is  true,  God,  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  is  an  exceedingly  poor  judge  of  human 
nature.  It  is  more  than  a  century  since  a  man  of 
true  genius  has  been  found  in  an  orthodox  pulpit. 
Every  minister  is  heretical  just  to  the  extent  that 
■htellect  is  above  the  average.  The  Lord 
seems  to  be  satisfied  with  mediocrity ;  but  the 
people  are  not. 

An  old  deacon,  wishing  to  get  rid  of  an  un- 
popular preacher,  advised  him  to  give  up  the 
ministry  and  turn  his  attention  to  something  else. 
The  preacher  replied  that  he  could  not  conscien- 
tiously desert  the  pulpit,  as  he  had  had  a  "  call "  to 
the  ministry.  To  which  the  deacon  replied,  "  That 
may  be  so,  but  it's  very  unfortunate  for  you,  that 
when  God  called  you  to  preach,  he  forgot  to  call 
anybody  to  hear  you." 

There  is  nothing  more  stupidly  egotistic  than 
the  claim  of  the  clergy  that  they  are,  in  some 
divine  sense  set  apart  to  the  service  of  the  Lord ; 
that  they  have   been  chosen,  and   sanctified  ;  that 


238  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

there  is  an  infinite  difference  between  them  and 
persons  employed  in  secular  affairs.  They  teach 
us  that  all  other  professions  must  take  care  of 
themselves ;  that  God  allows  anybody  to  be  a 
doctor,  a  lawyer,  statesman,  soldier,  or  artist ;  that 
the  Motts  and  Coopers  —  the  Mansfields  and 
Marshalls  —  the  Wilberforces  and  Sumners  —  the 
Angelos  and  Raphaels,  were  never  honored  by  a 
"  call."  They  chose  their  professions  and  won 
their  laurels  without  the  assistance  of  the  Lord. 
All  these  men  were  left  free  to  follow  their  own 
inclinations,  while  God  was  busily  engaged  select- 
ing and  "  calling  "  priests,  rectors,  elders,  ministers 
and  exhorters. 

Eighth.  With  having  doubted  that  God  was 
the  author  of  the  109th  Psalm. 

The  portion  of  that  psalm  which  carries  with 
it  the  clearest  and  most  satisfactory  evidences  of 
inspiration,  and  which  has  afforded  almost  unspeak- 
able consolation  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  is  as 
follows : 

Set  thou  a  wicked  man  over  him ;  and  let  Satan  stand 
at  his  right  hand. 

When  he  shall  be  judged,  let  him  be  condemned;  and 
let  his  prayer  become  sin. 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  239 

Let  his  days  be  few ;  and  let  another  take  his  office. 

Let  his  children  be  fatherless  and  his  wife  a  widow. 

Let  his  children  be  continually  vagabonds,  and  beg;  let 
them  seek  their  bread  also  out  of  their  desolate  places. 

Let  the  extortioner  catch  all  that  he  hath;  and  let  the 
stranger  spoil  his  labor. 

Let  there  be  none  to  extend  mercy  unto  him ;  neither 
let  there  be  any  to  favor  his  fatherless  children. 

Let  his  posterity  be  cut  off:  and  in  the  generation  follow- 
ing let  their  name  be  blotted  out. 

But  do  thou  for  me,  O  God  the  Lord,  for  Thy  name's 
sake ;  because  Thy  mercy  is  good,  deliver  Thou  me.  *  * 
I  will  greatly  praise  the  Lord  with  my  mouth. 

Think  of  a  God  wicked  and  malicious  enough 
to  inspire  this  prayer.  Think  of  one  infamous 
enough  to  answer  it. 

Had  this  inspired  psalm  been  found  in  some 
temple  erected  for  the  worship  of  snakes,  or  in 
the  possession  of  some  cannibal  king,  written  with 
blood  upon  the  dried  skins  of  babes,  there  would 
have  been  a  perfect  harmony  between  its  surround- 
ings and  its  sentiments. 

No  wonder  that  the  author  of  this  inspired 
psalm  coldly  received  Socrates  and  Penelope,  and 
reserved  his  sweetest  smiles  for  Catharine  the 
Second, 


240  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

Ninth.  With  having  said  that  the  battles  in 
which  the  Israelites  engaged,  with  the  approval 
and  command  of  Jehovah,  surpassed  in  cruelty 
those  of  Julius  Caesar. 

Was  it  Julius  Caesar  who  said,  "And  the  Lord 
our  God  delivered  him  before  us ;  and  we  smote 
him,  and  his  sons,  and  all  his  people.  And  we 
took  all  his  cities,  and  utterly  destroyed  the  men, 
and  the  women,  and  the  little  ones,  of  every  city, 
we  left  none  to  remain"? 

Did  Julius  Caesar  send  the  following  report  to 
the  Roman  senate  ?  "  And  we  took  all  his  cities 
at  that  time,  there  was  not  a  city  which  we  took 
not  from  them,  three-score  cities,  all  the  region 
of  Argob,  the  kingdom  of  Og  in  Bashan.  All 
these  cities  were  fenced  with  high  walls,  gates,  and 
bars ;  beside  unwalled  towns  a  great  many.  And 
we  utterly  destroyed  them,  as  we  did  unto  Sihon, 
king  of  Heshbon,  utterly  destroying  the  men, 
women,  and  children  of  every  city." 

Did  Caesar  take  the  city  of  Jericho  "  and  utterly 
destroy  all  that  was  in  the  city,  both  men  and 
women,  young  and  old  "  ?  Did  he  smite  "  all  the 
country  of  the  hills,  and  of  the  south,  and  of  the 
vale,  and  of  the  springs,  and  all  their  kings,  and 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  241 

leave  none  remaining  that  breathed,  as  the  Lord 
God  had  commanded  "  ? 

Search  the  records  of  the  whole  world,  find  out 
the  history  of  every  barbarous  tribe,  and  you  can 
find  no  crime  that  touched  a  lower  depth  of  infamy 
than  those  the  Bible's  God  commanded  and  ap- 
proved.  For  such  a  God  I  have  no  words  to 
express  my  loathing  and  contempt,  and  all  the 
words  in  all  the  languages  of  man  would  scarcely 
be  sufficient.  Away  with  such  a  God  !  Give  me 
Jupiter  rather,  with  lo  and  Europa,  or  even  Siva 
with  his  skulls  and  snakes. 

Tenth.  With  having  repudiated  the  doctrine 
of  "  total  depravity." 

What  a  precious  doctrine  is  that  of  the  total 
depravity  of  the  human  heart !  How  sweet  it  i*. 
to  believe  that  the  lives  of  all  the  good  and  great 
were  continual  sins  and  perpetual  crimes ;  that  the 
love  a  mother  bears  her  child  is,  in  the  sight  of 
God,  a  sin ;  that  the  gratitude  of  the  natural  heart 
is  simple  meanness ;  that  the  tears  of  pity  are 
impure ;  that  for  the  unconverted  to  live  and  labor 
for  others  is  an  offence  to  heaven  ;  that  the  noblest 
aspirations  of  the  soul  are  low  and  groveling  in 
the  sight  of  God ;  that  man  should  fall  upon  his 


342  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

knees  and  ask  forgiveness,  simply  for  loving  his 
wife  and  child,  and  that  even  the  act  of  asking 
forgiveness  is  in  fact  a  crime ! 

Surely  it  is  a  kind  of  bliss  to  feel  that  every 
woman  and  child  in  the  wide  world,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  those  who  believe  the  five  points,  or  some 
other  equally  cruel  creed,  and  such  children  as 
have  been  baptized,  ought  at  this  very  moment 
to  be  dashed  down  to  the  lowest  glowing  gulf 
of  hell. 

Take  from  the  Christian  the  history  of  his  own 
church  —  leave  that  entirely  out  of  the  question  — 
and  he  has  no  argument  left  with  which  to  sub- 
stantiate the  total  depravity  of  man. 

Eleventh.  With  having  doubted  the  "  persever- 
ance of  the  saints." 

I  suppose  the  real  meaning  of  this  doctrine  is, 
that  Presbyterians  are  just  as  sure  of  going  to 
heaven  as  all  other  folks  are  of  going  to  hell. 
The  real  idea  being,  that  it  all  depends  upon  the 
will  of  God,  and  not  upon  the  character  of  the 
person  to  be  damned  or  saved  ;  that  God  has  the 
weakness  to  send  Presbyterians  to  Paradise,  and 
the  justice  to  doom  the  rest  of  mankind  to  eternal 
fire. 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  243 

It  is  admitted  that  no  unconverted  brain  can 
see  the  least  particle  of  sense  in  this  doctrine; 
that  it  is  abhorrent  to  all  who  have  not  been  the 
recipients  of  a  "  new  heart ;"  that  only  the  perfectly 
good  can  justify  the  perfectly  infamous. 

It  is  contended  that  the  saints  do  not  persevere 
of  their  own  free  will  —  that  they  are  entitled  to 
no  credit  for  persevering ;  but  that  God  forces 
them  to  persevere,  while  on  the  other  hand,  every 
crime  is  committed  in  accordance  with  the  secret 
will  of  God,  who  does  all  things  for  his  own 
glory. 

Compared  with  this  doctrine,  there  is  no  other 
idea,  that  has  ever  been  believed  by  man,  that  can 
properly  be  called  absurd. 

Twelfth.  With  having  spoken  and  written 
somewhat  lightly  of  the  idea  of  converting  the 
heathen  with  doctrinal  sermons. 

Of  all  the  failures  of  which  we  have  any  his- 
tory or  knowledge,  the  missionary  effort  is  the 
most  conspicuous.  The  whole  question  has  been 
decided  here,  in  our  own  country,  and  conclu- 
sively settled.  We  have  nearly  exterminated  the 
Indians,  but  we  have  converted  none.  From  the 
days  of  John  Eliot  to  the  execution  of  the  last 


244  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

Modoc,  not  one  Indian  has  been  the  subject  of 
irresistible  grace  or  particular  redemption.  The 
few  red  men  who  roam  the  western  wilderness 
have  no  thought  or  care  concerning  the  five 
points  of  Calvin.  They  are  utterly  oblivious 
to  the  great  and  vital  truths  contained  in  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  the  Saybrook  platform,  and 
the  resolutions  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  No 
Indian  has  ever  scalped  another  on  account  of 
his  religious  belief.  This  of  itself  shows  conclu- 
sively that  the  missionaries  have  had  no  effect. 

Why  should  we  convert  the  heathen  of  China 
and  kill  our  own  ?  Why  should  we  send  mission- 
aries across  the  seas,  and  soldiers  over  the 
plains  ?  Why  should  we  send  Bibles  to  the  east 
and  muskets  to  the  west?  If  it  is  impossible 
to  convert  Indians  who  have  no  religion  of  their 
own  ;  no  prejudice  for  or  against  the  "  eternal 
procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  how  can  we  ex- 
pect to  convert  a  heathen  who  has  a  religion  ; 
who  has  plenty  of  gods  and  Bibles  and  prophets 
and  Christs,  and  who  has  a  religious  literature 
far  grander  than  our  own  ?  Can  we  hope  with 
the  story  of  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den  to  rival  the 
stupendous  miracles  of  India?    Is  there  anything 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  245 

in  our  Bible  as  lofty  and  loving  as  the  prayer 
of  the  Buddhist?  Compare  your  "Confession  of 
Faith"  with  the  following:  "Never  will  I  seek 
nor  receive  private  individual  salvation  —  never 
enter  into  final  peace  alone ;  but  forever  and 
everywhere  will  I  live  and  strive  for  the  univer- 
sal redemption  of  every  creature  throughout  all 
worlds.  Until  all  are  delivered,  never  will  I 
leave  the  world  of  sin,  sorrow,  and  struggle,  but 
will  remain  where  I  am." 

Think  of  sending  an  average  Presbyterian  to 
convert  a  man  who  daily  offers  this  tender, 
this  infinitely  generous,  this  incomparable  prayer. 
Think  of  reading  the  109th  Psalm  to  a  heathen 
who  has  a  Bible  of  his  own  in  which  is  found 
this  passage :  "  Blessed  is  that  man  and  beloved 
of  all  the  gods,  who  is  afraid  of  no  man,  and 
of  whom  no  man  is  afraid." 

Why  should  you  read  even  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  a  Hindu,  when  his  own  Chrishna  has 
said,  **  If  a  man  strike  thee,  and  in  striking  drop^ 
his  staff,  pick  it  up  and  hand  it  to  him  again  "  ? 
Why  send  a  Presbyterian  to  a  Sufi,  who  says, 
"  Better  one  moment  of  silent  contemplation  and 
inward  love,  than  seventy  thousand  years  of  out- 


246  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

ward  worship  "  ?  "  Whoso  would  carelessly  tread 
one  worm  that  crawls  on  earth,  that  heartless 
one  is  darkly  alienate  from  God ;  but  he  that, 
living,  embraceth  all  things  in  his  love,  to  live 
with  him  God  bursts  all  bounds  above,  below." 

Why  should  we  endeavor  to  thrust  our  cruel 
and  heartless  theology  upon  one  who  prays  this 
prayer :  "  O  God,  show  pity  toward  the  wicked ; 
for  on  the  good  thou  hast  already  bestowed  thy 
mercy  by  having  created  them  virtuous"? 

Compare  this  prayer  with  the  curses  and  cruel- 
ties of  the  Old  Testament — with  the  infamies 
commanded  and  approved  by  the  being  whom  we 
are  taught  to  worship  as  a  God — and  with  the 
following  tender  product  of  Presbyterianism :  "  It 
may  seem  absurd  to  human  wisdom  that  God 
should  harden,  blind,  and  deliver  up  some  men  to 
a  reprobate  sense ;  that  he  should  first  deliver 
them  over  to  evil,  and  then  condemn  them  for  that 
evil  ;  but  the  believing  spiritual  man  sees  no 
absurdity  in  all  this,  knowing  that  God  would  be 
never  a  whit  less  good  even  though  he  should 
destroy  all  men." 

Of  all  the  religions  that  have  been  produced 
by   the   egotism,   the   malice,   the   ignorance    and 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  247 

ambition  of  man,  Presbyterianism  is  the  most 
hideous. 

But  what  shall  I  say  more,  for  the  time  would 
fail  me  to  tell  of  Sabellianism,  of  a  "  Modal 
Trinity,"  and  the  "  Eternal  Procession  of  the  Holy 
Ghost"? 

Upon  these  charges,  a  minister  is  to  be  tried, 
here  in  Chicago ;  in  this  city  of  pluck  and  progress 
— this  marvel  of  energy  —  this  miracle  of  nerve. 
The  cry  of  "  heresy,"  here,  sounds  like  a  wail  from 
the  Dark  Ages — a  shriek  from  the  Inquisition,  or 
a  groan  from  the  grave  of  Calvin. 

Another  effort  is  being  made  to  enslave  a  man. 

It  is  claimed  that  every  member  of  the  church 
has  solemnly  agreed  never  to  outgrow  the  creed ; 
that  he  has  pledged  himself  to  remain  an  intel- 
lectual dwarf.  Upon  this  condition  the  church 
agrees  to  save  his  soul,  and  he  hands  over  his 
brains  to  bind  the  bargain.  Should  a  fact  be 
found  inconsistent  with  the  creed,  he  binds  him- 
self to  deny  the  fact  and  curse  the  finder.  With 
scraps  of  dogmas  and  crumbs  of  doctrine,  he  agrees 
that  his  soul  shall  be  satisfied  forever.  What  an 
intellectual  feast  the  Confession  of  Faith  must  be ! 
It  reminds  one   of  the  dinner  described  by  Sydney 


248  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

Smith,  where  everything  was  cold  except  the  water, 
and  everything  sour  except  the  vinegar. 

Every  member  of  a  church  promises  to  remain 
orthodox,  that  is  to  say  —  stationary.  Growth  is 
heresy.  Orthodox  ideas  are  the  feathers  that 
have  been  moulted  by  the  eagle  of  progress. 
They  are  the  dead  leaves  under  the  majestic 
palm,  while  heresy  is  the  bud  and  blossom  at 
the  top. 

Imagine  a  vine  that  grows  at  one  end  and 
decays  at  the  other.  The  end  that  grows  is 
heresy,  the  end  that  rots  is  orthodox.  The  dead 
are  orthodox,  and  your  cemetery  is  the  most  per- 
fect type  of  a  well  regulated  church.  No  thought, 
no  progress,  no  heresy  there.  Slowly  and  silently, 
side  by  side,  the  satisfied  members  peacefully  de- 
cay. There  is  only  this  difference — the  dead  do 
not  persecute. 

And  what  does  a  trial  for  heresy  mean  ?  It 
means  that  the  church  says  to  a  heretic,  "  Be- 
lieve as  I  do,  or  I  will  withdraw  my  support.  I 
will  not  employ  you.  I  will  pursue  you  until 
your  garments  are  rags  ;  until  your  children  cry 
for  bread ;  until  your  cheeks  are  furrowed  with 
tears.     I  will  hunt  you  to  the  very  portals  of  the 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  249 

tomb,  and  then  my  God  will  do  the  rest.  I  will 
not  imprison  you.  I  will  not  burn  you.  The 
law  prevents  my  doing  that.  I  helped  make  the 
law,  not  however  to  protect  you,  nor  to  deprive 
me  of  the  right  to  exterminate  you,  but  in  order 
to  keep  other  churches  from  exterminating  me." 

A  trial  for  heresy  means  that  the  spirit  of 
persecution  still  lingers  in  the  church;  that  it 
still  denies  the  right  of  private  judgment;  that 
it  still  thinks  more  of  creed  than  truth,  and  that 
it  is  still  determined  to  prevent  the  intellectual 
growth  of  man.  It  means  that  churches  are 
shambles  in  which  are  bought  and  sold  the  souls 
of  men.  It  means  that  the  church  is  still  guilty 
of  the  barbarity  of  opposing  thought  with  force. 
It  means  that  if  it  had  the  power,  the  mental 
horizon  would  be  bounded  by  a  creed;  that  it 
would  bring  again  the  whips  and  chains  and  dun- 
geon keys,  the  rack  and  fagot  of  the  past. 

But  let  me  tell  the  church  it  lacks  the  power. 
There  have  been,  and  still  are,  too  many  men 
who  own  themselves  —  too  much  thought,  too 
much  knowledge  for  the  church  to  grasp  again 
the  sword  of  power.  The  church  must  abdicate. 
For  the  Eglon  of  superstition  Science  has  a  mes- 
sage from  Truth. 


250  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

The  heretics  have  not  thought  and  suffered 
and  died  in  vain.  Every  heretic  has  been,  and 
is,  a  ray  of  Hght.  Not  in  vain  did  Voltaire,  that 
great  man.  point  from  the  foot  of  the  Alps  the 
finger  of  scorn  at  every  hypocrite  in  Europe. 
Not  in  vain  were  the  splendid  utterances  of  the 
infidels,  while  beyond  all  price  are  the  discov- 
eries of  science. 

The  church  has  impeded,  but  it  has  not  and 
it  cannot  stop  the  onward  march  of  the  human 
race.  Heresy  cannot  be  burned,  nor  imprisoned, 
nor  starved.  It  laughs  at  presbyteries  and  syn- 
ods, at  ecumenical  councils  and  the  impotent 
thunders  of  Sinai.  Heresy  is  the  eternal  dawn, 
the  morning  star,  the  glittering  herald  of  the  day. 
Heresy  is  the  last  and  best  thought.  It  is  the 
perpetual  New  World,  the  unknown  sea,  toward 
which  the  brave  all  sail.  It  is  the  eternal  hori- 
zon of  progress. 

Heresy  extends  the  hospitalities  of  the  brain 
to  a  new  thought 

Heresy  is  a  cradle ;  orthodoxy,  a  coffin. 

Why  should  man  be  afraid  to  think,  and  why 
should  he  fear  to  express  his  thoughts  ? 

Is  it  possible  that  an  infinite  Deity  is  unwill- 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  251 

ing  that  a  man  should  investigate  the  phenom- 
ena by  which  he  is  surrounded?  Is  it  possible 
that  a  god  delights  in  threatening  and  terrifying 
men  ?  What  glory,  what  honor  and  renown  a 
god  must  win  on  such  a  field !  The  ocean  rav- 
ing at  a  drop ;  a  star  envious  of  a  candle ;  the 
sun  jealous  of  a  fire-fly. 

Go  on,  presbyteries  and  synods,  go  on ! 
Thrust  the  heretics  out  of  the  church  —  that  is 
to  say,  throw  away  your  brains, —  put  out  your 
eyes.  The  infidels  will  thank  you.  They  are 
willing  to  adopt  your  exiles.  Every  deserter 
from  your  camp  is  a  recruit  for  the  army  of 
progress.  Cling  to  the  ignorant  dogmas  of  the 
past;  read  the  109th  Psalm;  gloat  over  the 
slaughter  of  mothers  and  babes ;  thank  God  for 
total  depravity ;  shower  your  honors  upon  hypo- 
crites, and  silence  every  minister  who  is  touched 
with  that  heresy  called  genius. 

Be  true  to  your  history.  Turn  out  the  astron- 
omers, the  geologists,  the  naturalists,  the  chemists, 
and  all  the  honest  scientists.  With  a  whip  of 
scorpions,  drive  them  all  out.  We  want  them  all 
Keep  the  ignorant,  the  superstitious,  the  bigoted, 
and    the    writers    of    charges    and    specifications. 


352  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

Keep  them,  and  keep  them  all.  Repeat  your 
pious  platitudes  in  the  drowsy  ears  of  the  faith- 
ful, and  read  your  Bible  to  heretics,  as  kings 
read  some  forgotten  riot-act  to  stop  and  stay 
the  waves  of  revolution.  You  are  too  weak  to 
excite  anger.  We  forgive  your  efforts  as  the  sun 
forgives  a  cloud — as  the  air  forgives  the  breath 
you  waste. 

How  long,  O  how  long,  will  man  listen  to  the 
threats  of  God,  and  shut  his  eyes  to  the  splendid 
possibilities  of  Nature?  How  long,  O  how  long 
will  man  remain  the  cringing  slave  of  a  false 
and  cruel  creed  ? 

By  this  time  the  whole  world  should  know 
that  the  real  Bible  has  not  yet  been  written,  but 
is  being  written,  and  that  it  will  never  be  fin- 
ished until  the  race  begins  its  downward  march, 
or  ceases  to  exist. 

The  real  Bible  is  not  the  work  of  inspired 
men,  nor  prophets,  nor  apostles,  nor  evangelists, 
nor  of  Christs.  Every  man  who  finds  a  fact, 
adds,  as  it  were,  a  word  to  this  great  book. 
It  is  not  attested  by  prophecy,  by  miracles  or 
signs.  It  makes  no  appeal  to  faith,  to  ignorance, 
to  credulity  or  fear.      It   has  no   punishment   for 


HERETICS  AND  HERESIES.  253 

unbelief,  and  no  reward  for  hypocrisy.  It  appeals 
to  man  in  the  name  of  demonstration.  It  has 
nothing  to  conceal.  It  has  no  fear  of  being  read, 
of  being  contradicted,  of  being  investigated  and 
understood.  It  does  not  pretend  to  be  holy,  or 
sacred ;  it  simply  claims  to  be  true.  It  challenges 
the  scrutiny  of  all,  and  implores  every  reader  to 
verify  every  line  for  himself  It  is  incapable  of 
being  blasphemed.  This  book  appeals  to  all  the 
surroundings  of  man.  Each  thing  that  exists 
testifies  of  its  perfection.  The  earth,  with  its 
heart  of  fire  and  crowns  of  snow ;  with  its  for- 
ests and  plains,  its  rocks  and  seas ;  with  its 
every  wave  and  cloud ;  with  its  every  leaf  and 
bud  and  flower,  confirms  its  every  word,  and  the 
solemn  stars,  shining  in  the  infinite  abysses,  are 
the  eternal  witnesses  of  its  truth. 


THE  GHOSTS. 


TO 

EBON   C.  INGERSOLL, 

MY   BROTHER, 

FROM  WHOSE  LIPS  I  HEARD  THE  FIRST  APPLAUSE 

AND  WITH  WHOSE  NAME  I  WISH  MY  OWN 

ASSOCIATED  UNTIL  BOTH  ARE 

FORGOTTEN, 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 


These  lectures  have  been  so  maimed  and  muti- 
lated by  orthodox  malice ;  have  been  made  to 
appear  so  halt,  crutched  and  decrepit  by  those  who 
mistake  the  pleasures  of  calumny  for  the  duties  of 
religion,  that  in  simple  justice  to  myself  I  concluded 
to  publish  them. 

Most  of  the  clergy  are,  or  seem  to  be,  utterly 
incapable  of  discussing  anything  in  a  fair  and 
catholic  spirit.  They  appeal,  not  to  reason,  but  to 
prejudice  ;  not  to  facts,  but  to  passages  of  Scripture. 
They  can  conceive  of  no  goodness,  of  no  spiritual 
exaltation  beyond  the  horizon  of  their  creed.  Who- 
ever differs  with  them  upon  what  they  are  pleased 
to  call  "fundamental  truths,"  is,  in  their  opinion,  a 
base  and  infamous  man.  To  re-enact  the  tragedies 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  they  lack  only  the  power. 
Bigotry  in  all  ages  has  been  the  same.  Christianity 
simply  transferred  the  brutality  of  the  Colosseum  to 

(259) 


26o  PREFACE. 

the  Inquisition.  For  the  murderous  combat  of  the 
gladiators,  the  saints  substituted  the  auto  de  fe. 
What  has  been  called  religion  is,  after  all,  but  the 
organization  of  the  wild  beast  in  man.  The  per- 
fumed blossom  of  arrogance  is  heaven.  Hell  is 
the  consummation  of  revenge. 

The  chief  business  of  the  clergy  has  always 
been  to  destroy  the  joy  of  life,  and  multiply  and 
magnify  the  terrors  and  tortures  of  death  and  per- 
dition. They  have  polluted  the  heart  and  paralyzed 
the  brain ;  and  upon  the  ignorant  altars  of  the  Past 
and  the  Dead,  they  have  endeavored  to  sacrifice 
the  Present  and  the  Living. 

Nothing  can  exceed  the  mendacity  of  the  reli- 
gious press.  I  have  had  some  little  experience 
with  political  editors,  and  am  forced  to  say,  that  un- 
til I  read  the  religious  papers,  I  did  not  know  what 
malicious  and  slimy  falsehoods  could  be  constructed 
from  ordinary  words.  The  ingenuity  with  which 
the  real  and  apparent  meaning  can  be  tortured  out 
of  language,  is  simply  amazing.  The  average  re- 
ligious editor  is  intolerant  and  insolent;  he  knows 
nothing  of  affairs ;  he  has  the  envy  of  failure,  the 
malice  of  impotence,  and  always  accounts  for  the 
brave  and  generous  actions  of  unbelievers,  by  low, 
base  and  unworthy  motives. 


PREFACE.  261 

By  this  time,  even  the  clergy  should  know  that 
the  intellect  of  the  nineteenth  century  needs  no 
guardian.  They  should  cease  to  regard  themselves 
as  shepherds  defending  flocks  of  weak,  silly  and 
fearful  sheep  from  the  claws  and  teeth  of  ravening 
wolves.  By  this  time  they  should  know  that  the 
religion  of  the  ignorant  and  brutal  Past  no  longer 
satisfies  the  heart  and  brain ;  that  the  miracles  have 
become  contemptible;  that  the  "evidences"  have 
ceased  to  convince ;  that  the  spirit  of  investigation 
cannot  be  stopped  nor  stayed ;  that  the  church  is 
losing  her  power ;  that  the  young  are  holding  in  a 
kind  of  tender  contempt  the  sacred  follies  of  the 
old ;  that  the  pulpit  and  pews  no  longer  represent 
the  culture  and  morality  of  the  world,  and  that  the 
brand  of  intellectual  inferiority  is  upon  the  ortho- 
dox brain. 

Men  should  be  liberated  from  the  aristocracy  of 
the  air.  Every  chain  of  superstition  should  be 
broken.  The  rights  of  men  and  women  should  be 
equal  and  sacred — marriage  should  be  a  perfect 
partnership  —  children  should  be  governed  by  kind- 
ness,— every  family  should  be  a  republic — every 
fireside  a  democracy. 

It  seems  almost  impossible   for  religious  people 


262  PREFACE. 

to  really  grasp  the  idea  of  intellectual  freedom. 
They  seem  to  think  that  man  is  responsible  for  his 
honest  thoughts ;  that  unbelief  is  a  crime ;  that  in- 
vestigation is  sinful ;  that  credulity  is  a  virtue,  and 
that  reason  is  a  dangerous  guide.  They  cannot 
divest  themselves  of  the  idea  that  in  the  realm  of 
thought  there  must  be  government — authority  and 
obedience — laws  and  penalties  —  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments, and  that  somewhere  in  the  universe  there 
is  a  penitentiary  for  the  soul. 

In  the  republic  of  mind,  one  is  a  majority. 
There,  all  are  monarchs,  and  all  are  equals.  The 
tyranny  of  a  majority  even  is  unknown.  Each  one 
is  crowned,  sceptered  and  throned.  Upon  every 
brow  is  the  tiara,  and  around  every  form  is  the  im- 
perial purple.  Only  those  are  good  citizens  who 
express  their  honest  thoughts,  and  those  who  per- 
secute for  opinion's  sake,  are  the  only  traitors. 
There,  nothing  is  considered  infamous  except  an 
appeal  to  brute  force,  and  nothing  sacred  but  love, 
liberty,  and  joy.  The  church  contemplates  this 
republic  with  a  sneer.  From  the  teeth  o£  hatred 
she  draws  back  the  lips  of  scorn.  She  is  filled 
with  the  spite  and  spleen  born  of  intellectual  weak- 
ness.    Once  she  was  egotistic ;  now  she  is  envious. 


PREFACE.  263 

Once  she  wore  upon  her  hollow  breast  false  gems, 
supposing  them  to  be  real.  They  have  been  shown 
to  be  false,  but  she  wears  them  still.  She  has  the 
malice  of  the    caught,  the   hatred  of  the  exposed. 

We  are  told  to  investigate  the  Bible  for  our- 
selves, and  at  the  same  time  informed  that  if  we 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  not  the  inspired 
word  of  God,  we  will  most  assuredly  be  damned. 
Under  such  circumstances,  if  we  believe  this,  inves- 
tigation is  impossible.  Whoever  is  held  responsible 
for  his  conclusions  cannot  weigh  the  evidence  with 
impartial  scales.  Fear  stands  at  the  balance,  and 
gives  to  falsehood  the  weight  of  its  trembling  hand. 

I  oppose  the  church  because  she  is  the  enemy 
of  liberty  ;  because  her  dogmas  are  infamous  and 
cruel  ;  because  she  humiliates  and  degrades 
woman  ;  because  she  teaches  the  doctrines  of  eter- 
nal torment  and  the  natural  depravity  of  man  ;  be- 
cause she  insists  upon  the  absurd,  the  impossible, 
and  the  senseless  ;  because  she  resorts  to  falsehood 
and  slander  ;  because  she  is  arrogant  and  revenge- 
ful ;  because  she  allows  men  to  sin  on  a  credit ;  be- 
cause she  discourages  self-reliance,  and  laughs  at 
good  works  ;  because  she  believes  in  vicarious  vir- 
tue and  vicarious  vice — vicarious  punishment  and 


264  PREFACE. 

vicarious  reward ;  because  she  regards  repentance 
of  more  importance  than  restitution,  and  because 
she  sacrifices  the  world  we  have  to  one  we  know 
not  of. 

The  free  and  generous,  the  tender  and  affec- 
tionate, will  understand  me.  Those  who  have 
escaped  from  the  grated  cells  of  a  creed  will  appre- 
ciate my  motives.  The  sad  and  suffering  wives, 
the  trembling  and  loving  children  will  thank  me : 
This  is  enough. 

Robert  G.  Ingersoll. 

Washington,  D.  C, 

April  13,  1878. 


THE  GHOSTS. 


Let  them  cover  their  Eyeless  Sockets  with  their 
Fleshless  Hands  and  fade  forever  from  the 

IMAGINATION   OF   MeN. 

THERE  are  three  theories  by  which  men 
account  for  all  phenomena,  for  everything 
that  happens:  First,  the  Supernatural:  Second, 
the  Supernatural  and  Natural;  Third,  the  Natural. 
Between  these  theories  there  has  been,  from  the 
dawn  of  civilization,  a  continual  conflict.  In  this 
great  war,  nearly  all  the  soldiers  have  been  in  the 
ranks  of  the  supernatural.  The  believers  in  the 
supernatural  insist  that  matter  is  controlled  and 
directed  entirely  by  powers  from  without;  while 
naturalists  maintain  that  Nature  acts  from  within; 
that  Nature  is  not  acted  upon ;  that  the  universe  is 
all  there  is;  that  Nature  with  infinite  arms  em- 
braces everything  that  exists,  and  that  all  supposed 
powers   beyond   the    limits    of   the    material    are 

065) 


266  THE  GHOSTS. 

simply  ghosts.  You  say,  **  Oh,  this  is  materialism !  " 
What  is  matter  ?  I  take  in  my  hand  some  earth  : — 
in  this  dust  put  seeds.  Let  the  arrows  of  light 
from  the  quiver  of  the  sun  smite  upon  it ;  let  the 
rain  fall  upon  it.  The  seeds  will  grow  and  a  plant 
will  bud  and  blossom.  Do  you  understand  this? 
Can  you  explain  it  better  than  you  can  the  produc- 
tion of  thought?  Have  you  the  slightest  conception 
of  what  it  really  is  ?  And  yet  you  speak  of  matter 
as  though  acquainted  with  its  origin,  as  though 
you  had  torn  from  the  clenched  hands  of  the  rocks 
the  secrets  of  material  existence.  Do  you  know 
what  force  is?  Can  you  account  for  molecular 
action?  Are  you  really  familiar  with  chemistry, 
and  can  you  account  for  the  loves  and  hatreds  of 
the  atoms?  Is  there  not  something  in  matter  that 
forever  eludes?  After  all,  can  you  get  beyond, 
above  or  below  appearances?  Before  you  cry 
"materialism!"  had  you  not  better  ascertain  what 
matter  really  is?  Can  you  think  even  of  anything 
without  a  material  basis  ?  Is  it  possible  to  imagine 
the  annihilation  of  a  single  atom?  Is  it  possible 
for  you  to  conceive  of  the  creation  of  an  atom? 
Can  you  have  a  thought  that  was  not  suggested 
to  you  by  what  you  call  matter  ? 


THE  GHOSTS.  267 

Our  fathers  denounced  materialism,  and  ac- 
counted for  all  phenomena  by  the  caprice  of  gods 
and  devils. 

For  thousands  of  years  it  was  believed  that 
ghosts,  good  and  bad,  benevolent  and  malignant, 
weak  and  powerful,  in  some  mysterious  way,  pro- 
duced all  phenomena;  that  disease  and  health, 
happiness  and  misery,  fortune  and  misfortune, 
peace  and  war,  life  and  death,  success  and  failure, 
were  but  arrows  from  the  quivers  of  these  ghosts ; 
that  shadowy  phantoms  rewarded  and  punished 
mankind;  that  they  were  pleased  and  displeased 
by  the  actions  of  men ;  that  they  sent  and  withheld 
the  snow,  the  light,  and  the  rain ;  that  they  blessed 
the  earth  with  harvests  or  cursed  it  with  famine ; 
that  they  fed  or  starved  the  children  of  men ;  that 
they  crowned  and  uncrowned  kings ;  that  they  took 
sides  in  war ;  that  they  controlled  the  winds ;  that 
they  gave  prosperous  voyages,  allowing  the  brave 
mariner  to  meet  his  wife  and  child  inside  the  harbor 
bar,  or  sent  the  storms,  strewing  the  sad  shores 
with  wrecks  of  ships  and  the  bodies  of  men. 

Formerly,  these  ghosts  were  believed  to  be 
almost  innumerable.  Earth,  air,  and  water  were 
filled  with  these  phantom  hosts.     In  modern  times 


268  THE  GHOSTS. 

they  have  greatly  decreased  in  number,  because 
the  second  theory, —  a  mingling  of  the  supernatural 
and  natural, —  has  generally  been  adopted.  The 
remaining  ghosts,  however,  are  supposed  to  per- 
form the  same  offices  as  the  hosts  of  yore. 

It  has  always  been  believed  that  these  ghosts 
could  in  some  way  be  appeased ;  that  they  could  be 
flattered  by  sacrifices,  by  prayer,  by  fasting,  by  the 
building  of  temples  and  cathedrals,  by  the  blood 
of  men  and  beasts,  by  forms  and  ceremonies,  by 
chants,  by  kneelings  and  prostrations,  by  flagella- 
tions and  maimings,  by  renouncing  the  joys  of 
home,  by  living  alone  in  the  wide  desert,  by  the 
practice  of  celibacy,  by  inventing  instruments  of 
torture,  by  destroying  men,  women  and  children, 
by  covering  the  earth  with  dungeons,  by  burning 
unbelievers,  by  putting  chains  upon  the  thoughts 
and  manacles  upon  the  limbs  of  men,  by  believing 
things  without  evidence  and  against  evidence,  by 
disbelieving  and  denying  demonstration,  by  despis- 
ing facts,  by  hating  reason,  by  denouncing  liberty, 
by  maligning  heretics,  by  slandering  the  dead,  by 
subscribing  to  senseless  and  cruel  creeds,  by  dis- 
couraging investigation,  by  worshiping  a  book,  by 
the  cultivation   of  credulity,  by  observing  certain 


THE  GHOSTS.  269 

times  and  days,  by  counting  beads,  by  gazing  at 
crosses,  by  hiring  others  to  repeat  verses  and 
prayers,  by  burning  candles  and  ringing  bells,  by 
enslaving  each  other  and  putting  out  the  eyes  of 
the  soul.  All  this  has  been  done  to  appease  and 
flatter  these  monsters  of  the  air. 

In  the  history  of  our  poor  world,  no  horror  has 
been  omitted,  no  infamy  has  been  left  undone  by 
the  believers  in  ghosts, — by  the  worshipers  of  these 
fleshless  phantoms.  And  yet  these  shadows  were 
born  of  cowardice  and  malignity.  They  were 
painted  by  the  pencil  of  fear  upon  the  canvas  of 
ignorance  by  that  artist  called  superstition. 

From  these  ghosts,  our  fathers  received  infor- 
mation. They  were  the  schoolmasters  of  our  ances- 
tors. They  were  the  scientists  and  philosophers, 
the  geologists,  legislators,  astronomers,  physicians, 
metaphysicians  and  historians  of  the  past.  For 
ages  these  ghosts  were  supposed  to  be  the  only 
source  of  real  knowledge.  They  inspired  men  to 
write  books,  and  the  books  were  considered  sacred. 
If  facts  were  found  to  be  inconsistent  with  these 
books,  so  much  the  worse  for  the  facts,  and 
especially  for  their  discoverers.  It  was  then,  and 
still  is,  believed  that  these  books  are  the  basis  of 


270  THE  GHOSTS, 

the  idea  of  immortality ;  that  to  give  up  these 
volumes,  or  rather  the  idea  that  they  are  inspired, 
is  to  renounce  the  idea  of  immortality.  This  I 
deny. 

The  idea  of  immortality,  that  like  a  sea  has 
ebbed  and  flowed  in  the  human  heart,  with  its 
countless  waves  of  hope  and  fear,  beating  against 
the  shores  and  rocks  of  time  and  fate,  was  not  born 
of  any  book,  nor  of  any  creed,  nor  of  any  religion. 
It  was  born  of  human  affection,  and  it  will  continue 
to  ebb  and  flow  beneath  the  mists  and  clouds  of 
doubt  and  darkness  as  long  as  love  kisses  the  lips 
of  death.  It  is  the  rainbow — Hope  shining  upon 
the  tears  of  grief. 

From  the  books  written  by  the  ghosts  we  have 
at  last  ascertained  that  they  knew  nothing  about 
the  world  in  which  we  live.  Did  they  know 
anything  about  the  next?  Upon  every  point 
where  contradiction  is  possible,  they  have  been 
contradicted. 

By  these  ghosts,  by  these  citizens  of  the  air, 
the  affairs  of  government  were  administered ;  all 
authority  to  govern  came  from  them.  The  emper- 
ors, kings  and  potentates  all  had  commissions  from 
these  phantoms.     Man  was  not  considered  as  the 


THE  GHOSTS.  271 

source  of  any  power  whatever.  To  rebel  against 
the  king  was  to  rebel  against  the  ghosts,  and 
nothing  less  than  the  blood  of  the  offender  could 
appease  the  invisible  phantom  or  the  visible  tyrant. 
Kneeling  was  the  proper  position  to  be  assumed 
by  the  multitude.  The  prostrate  were  the  good. 
Those  who  stood  erect  were  infidels  and  traitors. 
In  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  ghosts, 
man  was  enslaved,  crushed,  and  plundered.  The 
many  toiled  wearily  in  the  storm  and  sun  that  the 
few  favorites  of  the  ghosts  might  live  in  idleness. 
The  many  lived  in  huts,  and  caves,  and  dens,  that 
the  few  might  dwell  in  palaces.  The  many  covered 
themselves  with  rags,  that  the  few  might  robe 
themselves  in  purple  and  in  gold.  The  many 
crept,  and  cringed,  and  crawled,  that  the  few  might 
tread  upon  their  flesh  with  iron  feet. 

From  the  ghosts  men  received,  not  only  author- 
ity, but  information  of  every  kind.  They  told  us 
the  form  of  this  earth.  They  informed  us  that 
eclipses  were  caused  by  the  sins  of  man ;  that  the 
universe  was  made  in  six  days;  that  astronomy, 
and  geology  were  devices  of  wicked  men,  instigated 
by  wicked  ghosts ;  that  gazing  at  the  sky  with  a 
telescope  was  a  dangerous  thing ;  that  digging  into 


272  THE  GHOSTS. 

the  earth  was  sinful  curiosity ;  that  trying  to  be 
wise  above  what  they  had  written  was  born  of  a 
rebellious  and  irreverent  spirit. 

They  told  us  there  was  no  virtue  like  belief,  and 
no  crime  like  doubt;  that  investigation  was  pure 
impudence,  and  the  punishment  therefor,  eternal 
torment.  They  not  only  told  us  all  about  this 
world,  but  about  two  others;  and  if  their  state- 
ments about  the  other  worlds  are  as  true  as  about 
this,  no  one  can  estimate  the  value  of  their  in- 
formation. 

For  countless  ages  the  world  was  governed  by 
ghosts,  and  they  spared  no  pains  to  change  the 
eagle  of  the  human  intellect  into  a  bat  of  darkness. 
To  accomplish  this  infamous  purpose ;  to  drive  the 
love  of  truth  from  the  human  heart ;  to  prevent  the 
advancement  of  mankind;  to  shut  out  from  the 
world  every  ray  of  intellectual  light;  to  pollute 
every  mind  with  superstition,  the  power  of  kings, 
the  cunning  and  cruelty  of  priests,  and  the  wealth 
of  nations  were  exhausted. 

During  these  years  of  persecution,  ignorance, 
superstition  and  slavery,  nearly  all  the  people,  the 
kings,  lawyers,  doctors,  the  learned  and  the  un- 
learned,  believed   in   that   frightful    production  of 


THE  GHOSTS.  273 

ignorance,  fear,  and  faith,  called  witchcraft.  They 
believed  that  man  was  the  sport  and  prey  of  devils. 
They  really  thought  that  the  very  air  was  thick 
with  these  enemies  of  man.  With  few  exceptions, 
this  hideous  and  infamous  belief  was  universal. 
Under  these  conditions,  progress  was  almost  im- 
possible. 

Fear  paralyzes  the  brain.  Progress  is  born  of 
courage.  Fear  believes  —  courage  doubts.  Fear 
falls  upon  the  earth  and  prays  —  courage  stands 
erect  and  thinks.  Fear  retreats  —  courage  advan- 
ces. Fear  is  barbarism  —  courage  is  civilization. 
Fear  believes  in  witchcraft,  in  devils  and  in  ghosts. 
Fear  is  religion  —  courage  is  science. 

The  facts,  upon  which  this  terrible  belief  rested, 
were  proved  over  and  over  again  in  every  court  of 
Europe.  Thousands  confessed  themselves  guilty — 
admitted  that  they  had  sold  themselves  to  the  devil. 
They  gave  the  particulars  of  the  sale;  told  what 
they  said  and  what  the  devil  replied.  They  con- 
fessed this,  when  they  knew  that  confession  was 
death;  knew  that  their  property  would  be  con- 
fiscated, and  their  children  left  to  beg  their  bread. 
This  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  history — one  of  the 
strangest  contradictions  of  the  human  mind.    With- 


274  THE  GHOSTS. 

out  doubt,  they  really  believed  themselves  guilty. 
In  the  first  place,  they  believed  in  witchcraft  as  a 
fact,  and  when  charged  with  it,  they  probably 
became  insane.  In  their  insanity  they  confessed 
their  guilt.  They  found  themselves  abhorred  and 
deserted — charged  with  a  crime  that  they  could 
not  disprove.  Like  a  man  in  quicksand,  every 
effort  only  sunk  them  deeper.  Caught  in  this 
frightful  web,  at  the  mercy  of  the  spiders  of  super- 
stition, hope  fled,  and  nothing  remained  but  the 
insanity  of  confession.  The  whole  world  appeared 
to  be  insane. 

In  the  time  of  James  the  First,  a  man  was 
executed  for  causing  a  storm  at  sea  with  the  inten- 
tion of  drowning  one  of  the  royal  family.  How 
could  he  disprove  it?  How  could  he  show  that  he 
did  not  cause  the  storm  ?  All  storms  were  at  that 
time  generally  supposed  to  be  caused  by  the  devil 
—  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air — and  by 
those  whom  he  assisted. 

I  implore  you  to  remember  that  the  believers  in 
such  impossible  things  were  the  authors  of  our 
creeds  and  confessions  of  faith. 

A  woman  was  tried  and  convicted  before  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  one  of  the  great  judges  and  lawyers 


THE  GHOSTS.  275 

of  England,  for  having  caused  children  to  vomit 
crooked  pins.  She  was  also  charged  with  having 
nursed  devils.  The  learned  judge  charged  the 
intelligent  jury  that  there  was  no  doubt  as  to  the 
existence  of  witches ;  that  it  was  established  by  all 
history,  and  expressly  taught  by  the  Bible. 

The  woman  was  hanged  and  her  body  burned. 

Sir  Thomas  More  declared  that  to  give  up 
witchcraft  was  to  throw  away  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
In  my  judgment,  he  was  right. 

John  Wesley  was  a  firm  believer  in  ghosts  and 
witches,  and  insisted  upon  it,  years  after  all  laws 
upon  the  subject  had  been  repealed  in  England.  I 
beg  of  you  to  remember  that  John  Wesley  was  the 
founder  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

In  New  England,  a  woman  was  charged  with 
being  a  witch,  and  with  having  changed  herself  into 
a  fox.  While  in  that  condition  she  was  attacked 
and  bitten  by  some  dogs.  A  committee  of  three 
men,  by  order  of  the  court,  examined  this  woman. 
They  removed  her  clothing  and  searched  for  "witch 
spots."  That  is  to  say,  spots  into  which  needles 
could  be  thrust  without  giving  her  pain.  They 
reported  to  the  court  that  such  spots  were  found. 
She  denied,  however,  that  she  ever  had  changed 


276  THE  GHOSTS. 

herself  into  a  fox.  Upon  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee she  was  found  guilty  and  actually  executed. 
This  was  done  by  our  Puritan  fathers,  by  the 
gentlemen  who  braved  the  dangers  of  the  deep  for 
the  sake  of  worshiping  God  and  persecuting  their 
fellow-men. 

In  those  days  people  believed  in  what  was 
known  as  lycanthropy — that  is,  that  persons,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  devil,  could  assume  the  form 
of  wolves.  An  instance  is  given  where  a  man  was 
attacked  by  a  wolf.  He  defended  himself,  and 
succeeded  in  cutting  off  one  of  the  animal's  paws. 
The  wolf  ran  away.  The  man  picked  up  the  paw, 
put  it  in  his  pocket  and  carried  it  home.  There  he 
found  his  wife  with  one  of  her  hands  gone.  He 
took  the  paw  from  his  pocket.  It  had  changed  to  a 
human  hand.  He  charged  his  wife  with  being  a 
witch.  She  was  tried.  She  confessed  her  guilt, 
and  was  burned. 

People  were  burned  for  causing  frosts  in  sum- 
mer—  for  destroying  crops  with  hail  —  for  causing 
storms  —  for  making  cows  go  dry,  and  even  for 
souring  beer.  There  was  no  impossibility  for  which 
some  one  was  not  tried  and  convicted.  The  life  of 
no  one  was  secure.     To  be  charged,  was  to  be 


THE  GHOSTS.  277 

convicted.  Every  man  was  at  the  mercy  of  every 
other.  This  infamous  beHef  was  so  firmly  seated 
in  the  minds  of  the  people,  that  to  express  a  doubt 
as  to  its  truth  was  to  be  suspected.  Whoever 
denied  the  existence  of  witches  and  devils  was 
denounced  as  an  infidel. 

They  believed  that  animals  were  often  taken 
possession  of  by  devils,  and  that  the  killing  of  the 
animal  would  destroy  the  devil.  They  absolutely 
tried,  convicted,  and  executed  dumb  beasts. 

At  Basle,  in  1470,  a  rooster  was  tried  upon  the 
charge  of  having  laid  an  ^gg.  Rooster  eggs  were 
used  only  in  making  witch  ointment, —  this  every- 
body knew.  The  rooster  was  convicted  and  with 
all  due  solemnity  was  burned  in  the  public  square. 
So  a  hog  and  six  pigs  were  tried  for  having 
killed  and  partially  eaten  a  child.  The  hog  was 
convicted, —  but  the  pigs,  on  account  probably  of 
their  extreme  youth,  were  acquitted.  As  late  as 
1740,  a  cow  was  tried  and  convicted  of  being 
possessed  by  a  devil. 

They  used  to  exorcise  rats,  locusts,  snakes  and 
vermin.  They  used  to  go  through  the  alleys, 
streets,  and  fields,  and  warn  them  to  leave  within  a 
certain  number  of  days.  In  case  they  disobeyed, 
they  were  threatened  with  pains  and  penalties. 


278  THE  GHOSTS. 

But  let  us  be  careful  how  we  laugh  at  these 
things.  Let  us  not  pride  ourselves  too  much  on 
the  progress  of  our  age.  We  must  not  forget  that 
some  of  our  people  are  yet  in  the  same  intelligent 
business.  Only  a  little  while  ago,  the  governor  of 
Minnesota  appointed  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  to 
see  if  some  power  could  not  be  induced  to  kill  the 
grasshoppers,  or  send  them  into  some  other  state. 

About  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  so 
great  was  the  excitement  with  regard  to  the  exist- 
ence of  witchcraft  that  Pope  Innocent  VIII.  issued 
a  bull  directing  the  inquisitors  to  be  vigilant  in 
searching  out  and  punishing  all  guilty  of  this  crime. 
Forms  for  the  trial  were  regularly  laid  down  in  a 
book  or  a  pamphlet  called  the  "Malleus  Malefi- 
corum"  (Hammer  of  Witches),  which  was  issued 
by  the  Roman  See.  Popes  Alexander,  Leo,  and 
Adrian,  issued  like  bulls.  For  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  the  church  was  busy  in  punishing  the 
impossible  crime  of  witchcraft;  in  burning,  hanging 
and  torturing  men,  women,  and  children.  Protest- 
ants were  as  active  as  Catholics,  and  in  Geneva  five 
hundred  witches  were  burned  at  the  stake  in  a 
period  of  three  months.  About  one  thousand  were 
executed  in  one  year  in  the  diocese  of  Como.     At 


THE  GHOSTS.  279 

least  one  hundred  thousand  victims  suffered  in 
Germany  alone :  the  last  execution  ( in  Wurtzburg  ) 
taking  place  as  late  as  1749.  Witches  were  burned 
in  Switzerland  as  late  as  1780. 

In  England  the  same  frightful  scenes  were 
enacted.  Statutes  were  passed  from  Henry  VI.  to 
James  I.,  defining  the  crime  and  its  punishment. 
The  last  act  passed  by  the  British  parliament  was 
when  Lord  Bacon  was  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons;  and  this  act  was  not  repealed  until 
1736. 

Sir  William  Blackstone,  in  his  Commentaries  on 
the  Laws  of  England,  says:  "To  deny  the  pos- 
sibility, nay,  actual  existence  of  witchcraft  and 
sorcery,  is  at  once  flatly  to  contradict  the  word  of 
God  in  various  passages  both  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament ;  and  the  thing  itself  is  a  truth  to  which 
every  nation  in  the  world  hath  in  its  turn  borne 
testimony,  either  by  examples  seemingly  well  at- 
tested, or  by  prohibitory  laws,  which  at  least 
suppose  the  possibility  of  a  commerce  with  evil 
spirits." 

In  Brown's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  published  at 
Edinburg,  Scotland,  in  1807,  it  is  said  that:  "A 
witch  is  a  woman   that  has  dealings  with  Satan. 


28o  THE  GHOSTS. 

That  such  persons  are  among  men  is  abundantly 
plain  from  Scripture,  and  that  they  ought  to  be  put 
to  death." 

This  work  was  re-published  in  Albany,  New 
York,  in  1816.  No  wonder  the  clergy  of  that  city 
are  ignorant  and  bigoted  even  unto  this  day. 

In  1 716,  Mrs.  Hicks  and  her  daughter,  nine 
years  of  age,  were  hanged  for  selling  their  souls  to 
the  devil,  and  raising  a  storm  by  pulling  off  their 
stockings  and  making  a  lather  of  soap. 

In  England  it  has  been  estimated  that  at  least 
thirty  thousand  were  hanged  and  burned.  The  last 
victim  executed  in  Scotland,  perished  in  1722. 
"She  was  an  innocent  old  woman,  who  had  so  little 
idea  of  her  situation  as  to  rejoice  at  the  sight  of  the 
fire  which  was  destined  to  consume  her.  She  had 
a  daughter,  lame  both  of  hands  and  of  feet — a 
circumstance  attributed  to  the  witch  having  been 
used  to  transform  her  daughter  into  a  pony  and 
getting  her  shod  by  the  devil." 

In  1692,  nineteen  persons  were  executed  and 
one  pressed  to  death  in  Salem,  Massachusetts,  for 
the  crime  of  witchcraft. 

It  was  thought  in  those  days  that  men  and 
women  made  compacts  with  the  devil,  orally  and  in 


THE  GHOSTS.  281 

writing.  That  they  abjured  God  and  Jesus  Christ, 
and  dedicated  themselves  wholly  to  the  devil.  The 
contracts  were  confirmed  at  a  general  meeting  of 
witches  and  ghosts,  over  which  the  devil  himself 
presided;  and  the  persons  generally  signed  the 
articles  of  agreement  with  their  own  blood.  These 
contracts  were,  in  some  instances,  for  a  few  years ; 
in  others,  for  life.  General  assemblies  of  the 
witches  were  held  at  least  once  a  year,  at  which 
they  appeared  entirely  naked,  besmeared  with  an 
ointment  made  from  the  bodies  of  unbaptized  in- 
fants. "To  these  meetings  they  rode  from  great 
distances  on  broomsticks,  pokers,  goats,  hogs,  and 
dogs.  Here  they  did  homage  to  the  prince  of  hell, 
and  offered  him  sacrifices  of  young  children,  and 
practiced  all  sorts  of  license  until  the  break  of 
day." 

"As  late  as  18 15,  Belgium  was  disgraced  by  a 
witch  trial ;  and  guilt  was  established  by  the  water 
ordeal."  'Tn  1836,  the  populace  of  Hela,  near 
Dantzic,  twice  plunged  into  the  sea  a  woman 
reputed  to  be  a  sorceress;  and  as  the  miserable 
creature  persisted  in  rising  to  the  surface,  she  was 
pronounced  guilty,  and  beaten  to  death." 

"  It  was  believed  that  the  bodies  of  devils  are 


28?  THE  GHOSTS. 

not  like  those  of  men  and  animals,  cast  in  an 
unchangeable  mould.  It  was  thought  they  were 
like  clouds,  refined  and  subtle  matter,  capable  of 
assuming  any  form  and  penetrating  into  any  orifice. 
The  horrible  tortures  they  endured  in  their  place  of 
punishment  rendered  them  extremely  sensitive  to 
suffering,  and  they  continually  sought  a  temperate 
and  somewhat  moist  warmth  in  order  to  allay  their 
pangs.  It  was  for  this  reason  they  so  frequently 
entered  into  men  and  women." 

The  devil  could  transport  men,  at  his  will, 
through  the  air.  He  could  beget  children;  and 
Martin  Luther  himself  had  come  in  contact  with 
one  of  these  children.  He  recommended  the 
mother  to  throw  the  child  into  the  river,  in  order  to 
free  their  house  from  the  presence  of  a  devil. 

It  was  believed  that  the  devil  could  transform 
people  into  any  shape  he  pleased. 

Whoever  denied  these  things  was  denounced  as 
an  infidel.  All  the  believers  in  witchcraft  con- 
fidently appealed  to  the  Bible,  Their  mouths  were 
filled  with  passages  demonstrating  the  existence  of 
witches  and  their  power  over  human  beings.  By 
the  Bible  they  proved  that  innumerable  evil  spirits 
were  ranging  over  the   world  endeavoring  to  ruin 


THE  GHOSTS.  283 

mankind ;  that  these  spirits  possessed  a  power  and 
wisdom  far  transcending  the  limits  of  human  facul- 
ties; that  they  delighted  in  every  misfortune  that 
could  befall  the  world ;  that  their  malice  was  super- 
human. That  they  caused  tempests  was  proved  by 
the  action  of  the  devil  toward  Job ;  by  the  passage 
in  the  book  of  Revelation  describing  the  four  angels 
who  held  the  four  winds,  and  to  whom  it  was  given 
to  afflict  the  earth.  They  believed  the  devil  could 
carry  persons  hundreds  of  miles,  in  a  few  seconds, 
through  the  air.  They  believed  this,  because  they 
knew  that  Christ  had  been  carried  by  the  devil  in 
the  same  manner  and  placed  on  a  pinnacle  of  the 
temple.  "The  prophet  Habakkuk  had  been  trans- 
ported by  a  spirit  from  Judea  to  Babylon;  and 
Philip,  the  evangelist,  had  been  the  object  of  a 
similar  miracle;  and  in  the  same  way  Saint  Paul 
had  been  carried  in  the  body  into  the  third 
heaven." 

"In  those  pious  days,  they  believed  that  Incujur 
and  Succubi  were  forever  wandering  among  man- 
kind, alluring,  by  more  than  human  charms,  the 
unwary  to  their  destruction,  and  laying  plots,  which 
were  too  often  successful,  against  the  virtue  of  the 
saints.      Sometimes    the   witches    kindled    in   the 


284  THE  GHOSTS. 

monastic  priest  a  more  terrestrial  fire.  People  told, 
with  bated  breath,  how,  under  the  spell  of  a  vin- 
dictive woman,  four  successive  abbots  in  a  German 
monastery  had  been  wasted  away  by  an  unholy 
flame." 

An  instance  is  given  in  which  the  devil  not  only 
assumed  the  appearance  of  a  holy  man,  in  order  to 
pay  his  addresses  to  a  lady,  but  when  discovered, 
crept  under  the  bed,  suffered  himself  to  be  dragged 
out,  and  was  impudent  enough  to  declare  that  he 
was  the  veritable  bishop.  So  perfectly  had  he 
assumed  the  form  and  features  of  the  prelate  that 
those  who  knew  the  bishop  best  were  deceived. 

One  can  hardly  imagine  the  frightful  state  of 
the  human  mind  during  these  long  centuries  of 
darkness  and  superstition.  To  them,  these  things 
were  awful  and  frightful  realities.  Hovering  above 
them  in  the  air,  in  their  houses,  in  the  bosoms  of 
friends,  in  their  very  bodies,  in  all  the  darkness  of 
night,  everywhere,  around,  above  and  below,  were 
innumerable  hosts  of  unclean  and  malignant  devils. 

From  the  malice  of  those  leering  and  vindictive 
vampires  of  the  air,  the  church  pretended  to 
defend  mankind.  Pursued  by  these  phantoms,  the 
frightened  multitudes  fell  upon  their  faces  and  im- 


THE  GHOSTS.  285 

plored  the  aid  of  robed  hypocrisy  and  sceptered 
theft. 

Take  from  the  orthodox  church  of  to-day  the 
threat  and  fear  of  hell,  and  it  becomes  an  extinct 
volcano. 

Take  from  the  church  the  miraculous,  the  super- 
natural, the  incomprehensible,  the  unreasonable, 
the  impossible,  the  unknowable,  and  the  absurd, 
and  nothing  but  a  vacuum  remains. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  infamous  things  justly 
laid  to  the  charge  of  the  church,  we  are  told  that 
the  civilization  of  to-day  is  the  child  of  what  we 
are  pleased   to   call    the  superstition  of  the  past. 

Religion  has  not  civilized  man  —  man  has  civil- 
ized religion.     God  improves  as  man  advances. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  what  we  have 
received  from  the  followers  of  the  ghosts.  Let  me 
give  you  an  outline  of  the  sciences  as  taught  by 
these  philosophers  of  the  clouds. 

All  diseases  were  produced,  either  as  a  punish- 
ment by  the  good  ghosts,  or  out  of  pure  malignity 
by  the  bad  ones.  There  were,  properly  speaking, 
no  diseases.  The  sick  were  possessed  by  ghosts. 
The  science  of  medicine  consisted  in  knowing  how 


286  THE  GHOSTS. 

to  persuade  these  ghosts  to  vacate  the  premises. 
For  thousands  of  years  the  diseased  were  treated 
with  incantations,  with  hideous  noises,  with  drums 
and  gongs.  Everything  was  done  to  make  the  visit 
of  the  ghost  as  unpleasant  as  possible,  and  they 
generally  succeeded  in  making  things  so  disagree- 
able that  if  the  ghost  did  not  leave,  the  patient  did. 
These  ghosts  were  supposed  to  be  of  different 
rank,  power  and  dignity.  Now  and  then  a  man 
pretended  to  have  won  the  favor  of  some  powerful 
ghost,  and  that  gave  him  power  over  the  little 
ones.     Such  a  man  became  an  eminent  physician. 

It  was  found  that  certain  kinds  of  smoke,  such 
as  that  produced  by  burning  the  liver  of  a  fish,  the 
dried  skin  of  a  serpent,  the  eyes  of  a  toad,  or  the 
tongue  of  an  adder,  were  exceedingly  offensive  to 
the  nostrils  of  an  ordinary  ghost.  With  this 
smoke,  the  sick  room  would  be  filled  until  the  ghost 
vanished  or  the  patient  died. 

It  was  also  believed  that  certain  words,  —  the 
names  of  the  most  powerful  ghosts,  —  when  prop- 
erly pronounced,  were  very  effective  weapons.  It 
was  for  a  long  time  thought  that  Latin  words  were 
the  best,  —  Latin  being  a  dead  language,  and 
known   by  the   clergy.     Others  thought   that  two 


THE  GHOSTS.  287 

Sticks  laid  across  each  other  and  held  before  the 
wicked  ghost  would  cause  it  instantly  to  flee  in 
dread  away. 

For  thousands  of  years,  the  practice  of  medicine 
consisted  in  driving  these  evil  spirits  out  of  the 
bodies  of  men. 

In  some  instances,  bargains  and  compromises 
were  made  with  the  ghosts.  One  case  is  given 
where  a  multitude  of  devils  traded  a  man  for  a  herd 
of  swine.  In  this  transaction  the  devils  were 
the  losers,  as  the  swine  immediately  drowned 
themselves  in  the  sea.  This  idea  of  disease 
appears  to  have  been  almost  universal,  and  is  by  no 
means  yet  extinct. 

The  contortions  of  the  epileptic,  the  strange 
twitchings  of  those  afflicted  with  chorea,  the 
shakings  of  palsy,  dreams,  trances,  and  the  number- 
less frightful  phenomena  produced  by  diseases  of 
the  nerves,  were  all  seized  upon  as  so  many  proofs 
that  the  bodies  of  men  were  filled  with  unclean  and 
malignant  ghosts. 

Whoever  endeavored  to  account  for  these  things 
by  natural  causes,  whoever  attempted  to  cure 
diseases  by  natural  means,  was  denounced  by  the 
church  as  an  infidel.      To  explain  anything  was  a 


288  THE  GHOSTS. 

crime.  It  was  to  the  interest  of  the  priest  that  all 
phenomena  should  be  accounted  for  by  the  will  and 
power  of  gods  and  devils.  The  moment  it  is 
admitted  that  all  phenomena  are  within  the  domain 
of  the  natural,  the  necessity  for  a  priest  has 
disappeared.  Religion  breathes  the  air  of  the 
supernatural.  Take  from  the  mind  of  man  the  idea 
of  the  supernatural,  and  religion  ceases  to  exist. 
For  this  reason,  the  church  has  always  despised  the 
man  who  explained  the  wonderful.  Upon  this 
principle,  nothing  was  left  undone  to  stay  the 
science  of  medicine.  As  long  as  plagues  and  pesti- 
lences could  be  stopped  by  prayer,  the  priest  was 
useful.  The  moment  the  physician  found  a  cure, 
the  priest  became  an  extravagance.  The  moment  it 
began  to  be  apparent  that  prayer  could  do  nothing 
for  the  body,  the  priest  shifted  his  ground  and 
began  praying  for  the  soul. 

Long  after  the  devil  idea  was  substantially  aban- 
doned in  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  when  it  was 
admitted  that  God  had  nothing  to  do  with  ordinary 
coughs  and  colds,  it  was  still  believed  that  all  the 
frightfi.il  diseases  were  sent  by  him  as  punishments 
for  the  wickedness  of  the  people.  It  was  thought  to 
be  a  kind  of  blasphemy  to  even  try,  by  any  natural 


THE  GHOSTS.  289 

means,  to  stay  the  ravages  of  pestilence.  Formerly, 
during  the  prevalence  of  plague  and  epidemics,  the 
arrogance  of  the  priest  was  boundless.  He  told 
the  people  that  they  had  slighted  the  clergy,  that 
they  had  refused  to  pay  tithes,  that  they  had 
'doubted  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  and 
that  God  was  now  taking  his  revenge.  The  people 
for  the  most  part,  believed  this  infamous  tissue 
of  priestcraft.  They  hastened  to  fall  upon  their 
knees;  they  poured  out  their  wealth  upon  the 
altars  of  hypocrisy;  they  abased  and  debased 
themselves ;  from  their  minds  they  banished  all 
doubts,  and  made  haste  to  crawl  in  the  very  dust  of 
humility. 

The  church  never  wanted  disease  to  be  under 
the  control  of  man.  Timothy  Dwight,  president  of 
Yale  College,  preached  a  sermon  against  vaccina- 
tion. His  idea  was,  that  if  God  had  decreed  from 
all  eternity  that  a  certain  man  should  die  with  the 
small-pox,  it  was  a  frightful  sin  to  avoid  and  annul 
that  decree  by  the  trick  of  vaccination.  Small-pox 
being  regarded  as  one  of  the  heaviest  guns  in  the 
arsenal  of  heaven,  to  spike  it  was  the  height  of 
presumption.  Plagues  and  pestilences  were  instru- 
mentalities in   the   hands   of   God   with   which    to 


290  THE  GHOSTS. 

gain  the  love  and  worship  of  mankind.  T5  find 
a  cure  for  disease  was  to  take  a  weapon  from  the 
church.  No  one  tries  to  cure  the  ague  with  prayer. 
Quinine  has  been  found  altogether  more  reliable. 
Just  as  soon  as  a  specific  is  found  for  a  disease, 
that  disease  will  be  left  out  of  the  list  of  prayer. 
The  number  of  diseases  with  which  God  from  time 
to  time  afflicts  mankind,  is  continually  decreasing. 
In  a  few  years  all  of  them  will  be  under  the  control 
of  man,  the  gods  will  be  left  unarmed,  and-  the 
threats  of  their  priests  will  excite  only  a  smile. 

The  science  of  medicine  has  had  but  one 
enemy — religion.  Man  was  afraid  to  save  his 
body  for  fear  he  might  lose  his  soul. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  people  in  those  days 
believed  in  and  taught  the  infamous  doctrine  of 
eternal  punishment — a  doctrine  that  makes  God  a 
heartless  monster  and  man  a  slimy  hypocrite  and 
slave  ? 

The  ghosts  were  historians,  and  their  histories 
were  the  grossest  absurdities.  "Tales  told  by 
idiots,  full  of  sound  and  fury,  signifying  nothing." 
In  those  days  the  histories  were  written  by  the 
monks,  who,  as  a  rule,  were  almost  as  superstitious 


THE  GHOSTS.  291 

as  they  were  dishonest.  They  wrote  as  though 
they  had  been  witnesses  of  every  occurrence  they 
related.  They  wrote  the  history  of  every  country 
of  importance.  They  told  all  the  past  and  pre- 
dicted all  the  future  with  an  impudence  that 
amounted  to  sublimity.  "They  traced  the  order  of 
St.  Michael,  in  France,  to  the  archangel  himself, 
and  alleged  that  he  was  the  founder  of  a  chivalric 
order  in  heaven  itself.  They  said  that  Tartars 
originally  came  from  hell,  and  that  they  were  called 
Tartars  because  Tartarus  was  one  of  the  names  of 
perdition.  They  declared  that  Scotland  was  so 
named  after  Scota,  a  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  who 
landed  in  Ireland,  invaded  Scotland,  and  took  it  by 
force  of  arms.  This  statement  was  made  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  Pope  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  was  alluded  to  as  a  well-known  fact.  The 
letter  was  written  by  some  of  the  highest  digni- 
taries, and  by  the  direction  of  the  King  himself." 

These  gentlemen  accounted  for  the  red  on  the 
breasts  of  robins,  from  the  fact  that  these  birds 
carried  water  to  unbaptized  infants  in  hell. 

Matthew,  of  Paris,  an  eminent  historian  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  gave  the  world  the  following 
piece   of   information :     **  It    is    well    known    that 


292  THE  GHOSTS. 

Mohammed  was  once  a  cardinal,  and  became  a 
heretic  because  he  failed  in  his  effort  to  be  elected 
pope;"  and  that  having  drank  to  excess,  he  fell  by 
the  roadside,  and  in  this  condition  was  killed  by 
swine.  "And  for  that  reason,  his  followers  abhor 
pork  even  unto  this  day." 

Another  eminent  historian  informs  us  that  Nero 
was  in  the  habit  of  vomiting  frogs.  When  I  read 
this,  I  said  to  myself:  Some  of  the  croakers  of  the 
present  day  against  Progress  would  be  the  better 
for  such  a  vomit. 

The  history  of  Charlemagne  was  written  by 
Turpin,  of  Rheims.  He  was  a  bishop.  He  assures 
us  that  the  walls  of  a  city  fell  down  in  answer  to 
prayer.  That  there  were  giants  in  those  days  who 
could  take  fifty  ordinary  men  under  their  arms  and 
walk  away  with  them.  "With  the  greatest  of  these, 
a  direct  descendant  of  Goliath,  one  Orlando  had  a 
theological  discussion,  and  that  in  the  heat  of  the 
debate,  when  the  giant  was  overwhelmed  with  the 
argument,  Orlando  rushed  forward  and  inflicted  a 
fatal  stab." 

The  history  of  Britain,  written  by  the  arch- 
deacons of  Monmouth  and  Oxford,  was  wonderfully 
popular.      According   to   them,    Brutus   conquered 


THE  GHOSTS.  293 

England  and  built  the  city  of  London.  During  his 
time,  it  rained  pure  blood  for  three  days.  At 
another  time,  a  monster  came  from  the  sea,  and, 
after  having  devoured  great  multitudes  of  people, 
swallowed  the  king  and  disappeared.  They  tell  us 
that  King  Arthur  was  not  born  like  other  mortals, 
but  was  the  result  of  a  magical  contrivance ;  that 
he  had  great  luck  in  killing  giants ;  that  he  killed 
one  in  France  that  had  the  cheerful  habit  of  eating 
some  thirty  men  a  day.  That  this  giant  had 
clothes  woven  of  the  beards  of  the  kings  he  had 
devoured.  To  cap  the  climax,  one  of  the  authors 
of  this  book  was  promoted  for  having  written  the 
only    reliable    history  of  his  country. 

In  all  the  histories  of  those  days  there  is  hardly 
a  single  truth.  Facts  were  considered  unworthy 
of  preservation.  Anything  that  really  happened 
was  not  of  sufficient  interest  or  importance  to  be 
recorded.  The  great  religious  historian,  Eusebius, 
ingenuously  remarks  that  in  his  history  he  carefully 
omitted  whatever  tended  to  discredit  the  church, 
and  that  he  piously  magnified  all  that  conduced  to 
her  glory. 

The  same  glorious  principle  was  scrupulously 
adhered  to  by  all  the  historians  of  that  time. 


294  THE  GHOSTS. 

They  wrote,  and  the  people  believed,  that  the 
tracks  of  Pharoah's  chariots  were  still  visible  on 
the  sands  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  that  they  had  been 
miraculously  preserved  from  the  winds  and  waves 
as  perpetual  witnesses  of  the  great  miracle  there 
performed. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  every  truth  in  the  histories 
of  those  times  is  the  result  of  accident  or  mistake. 

They  accounted  for  everything  as  the  work  of 
good  and  evil  spirits.  With  cause  and  effect  they 
had  nothing  to  do.  Facts  were  in  no  way  related 
to  each  other.  God,  governed  by  infinite  caprice, 
filled  the  world  with  miracles  and  disconnected 
events.  From  the  quiver  of  his  hatred  came  the 
arrows  of  famine,  pestilence,  and  death. 

The  moment  that  the  idea  is  abandoned  that  all 
is  natural;  that  all  phenomena  are  the  necessary 
links  in  the  endless  chain  of  being,  the  conception 
of  history  becomes  impossible.  With  the  ghosts, 
the  present  is  not  the  child  of  the  past,  nor  the 
mother  of  the  future.  In  the  domain  of  religion 
all  is  chance,  accident,  and  caprice. 

Do  not  forget,  I  pray  you,  that  our  creeds  were 
written   by  the  cotemporaries  of  these   historians. 


THE  GHOSTS.  295 

The  same  idea  was  applied  to  law.  It  was 
believed  by  our  intelligent  ancestors  that  all  law 
derived  its  sacredness  and  its  binding  force  from 
the  fact  that  it  had  been  communicated  to  man  by 
the  ghosts.  Of  course  it  was  not  pretended  that 
the  ghosts  told  everybody  the  law ;  but  they  told  it 
to  a  few,  and  the  few  told  it  to  the  people,  and  the 
people,  as  a  rule,  paid  them  exceedingly  well  for 
their  trouble.  It  was  thousands  of  ages  before  the 
people  commenced  making  laws  for  themselves,  and 
strange  as  it  may  appear,  most  of  these  laws  were 
vastly  superior  to  the  ghost  article.  Through  the 
web  and  woof  of  human  legislation  began  to  run 
and  shine  and  glitter  the  golden  thread  of  justice. 

During  these  years  of  darkness  it  was  believed 
that  rather  than  see  an  act  of  injustice  done  ;  rather 
than  see  the  innocent  suffer;  rather  than  see  the 
guilty  triumph,  some  ghost  would  interfere.  This 
belief,  as  a  rule,  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the 
victorious  party,  and  as  the  other  man  was  dead, 
no  complaint  was  heard  from  him. 

This  doctrine  was  the  sanctification  of  brute 
force  and  chance.  They  had  trials  by  battle,  by 
fire,  by  water,  and  by  lot.  Persons  were  made  to 
grasp  hot  iron,  and  if  it  burned  them  their  guilt 


296  THE  GHOSTS. 

was  established.  Others,  with  tied  hands  and  feet, 
were  cast  into  the  sea,  and  if  they  sank,  the  verdict 
of  guilty  was  unanimous, —  if  they  did  not  sink, 
they  were  in  league  with  devils. 

So  in  England,  persons  charged  with  crime 
could  appeal  to  the  corsned.  The  corsned  was  a 
piece  of  the  sacramental  bread.  If  the  defendant 
could  swallow  this  piece  he  went  acquit.  Godwin, 
Earl  of  Kent,  in  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
appealed  to  the  corsned.  He  failed  to  swallow  it 
and  was. choked  to  death. 

The  ghosts  and  their  followers  always  took 
delight  in  torture,  in  cruel  and  unusual  punish- 
ments. For  the  infraction  of  most  of  their  laws, 
death  was  the  penalty  —  death  produced  by  stoning 
and  by  fire.  Sometimes,  when  man  committed 
only  murder,  he  was  allowed  to  flee  to  some  city 
of  refuge.  Murder  was  a  crime  against  man.  But 
for  saying  certain  words,  or  denying  certain  doc- 
trines, or  for  picking  up  sticks  on  certain  days,  or 
for  worshiping  the  wrong  ghost,  or  for  failing  to 
pray  to  the  right  one,  or  for  laughing  at  a  priest,  or 
for  saying  that  wine  was  not  blood,  or  that  bread 
was  not  flesh,  or  for  failing  to  regard  ram's  horns  as 
artillery,    or   for    insisting    that    a    dry  bone  was 


THE  GHOSTS.  297 

scarcely  sufficient  to  take  the  place  of  water  works, 
or  that  a  raven,  as  a  rule,  made  a  poor  landlord :  — 
death,  produced  by  all  the  ways  that  the  ingenuity 
of  hatred  could  devise,  was  the  penalty. 

Law  is  a  growth  —  it  is  a  science.  Right  and 
wrong  exist  in  the  nature  of  things.  Things  are 
not  right  because  they  are  commanded,  nor  wrong 
because  they  are  prohibited.  There  are  real  crimes 
enough  without  creating  artificial  ones.  All  prog- 
ress in  legislation  has  for  centuries  consisted  in 
repealing  the  laws  of  the  ghosts. 

The  idea  of  right  and  wrong  is  born  of  man's 
capacity  to  enjoy  and  suffer.  If  man  could  not 
suffer,  if  he  could  not  inflict  injury  upon  his  fellow, 
if  he  could  neither  feel  nor  inflict  pain,  the  idea  of 
right  and  wrong  never  would  have  entered  his 
brain.  But  for  this,  the  word  conscience  never 
would  have  passed  the  lips  of  man. 

There  is  one  good  —  happiness.  There  is  but 
one  sin — selfishness.  All  law  should  be  for  the 
preservation  of  the  one  and  the  destruction  of  the 
other. 

Under  the  regime  of  the  ghosts,  laws  were  not 
supposed  to  exist  in  the  nature  of  things.  They 
were  supposed  to  be  simply  the  irresponsible  com- 


298  THE  GHOSTS. 

mand  of  a  ghost.  These  commands  were  not 
supposed  to  rest  upon  reason,  they  were  the 
product  of  arbitrary  will. 

The  penalties  for  the  violation  of  these  laws 
were  as  cruel  as  the  laws  were  senseless  and 
absurd.  Working  on  the  Sabbath  and  murder 
were  both  punished  with  death.  The  tendency  of 
such  laws  is  to  blot  from  the  human  heart  the  sense 
of  justice. 

To  show  you  how  perfectly  every  department  of 
knowledge,  or  ignorance  rather,  was  saturated  with 
superstition,  I  will  for  a  moment  refer  to  the  science 
of  language. 

It  was  thought  by  our  fathers,  that  Hebrew  was 
the  original  language ;  that  it  was  taught  to  Adam 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden  by  the  Almighty,  and  that 
consequently  all  languages  came  from,  and  could 
be  traced  to,  the  Hebrew.  Every  fact  inconsistent 
with  that  idea  was  discarded.  According  to  the 
ghosts,  the  trouble  at  the  tower  of  Babel  accounted 
for  the  fact  that  all  people  did  not  speak  Hebrew. 
The  Babel  business  settled  all  questions  in  the 
science  of  language. 

After  a  time,  so  many  facts  were  found  to  be 


THE  GHOSTS.  299 

inconsistent  with  the  Hebrew  idea  that  it  besfan  to 
fall  into  disrepute,  and  other  languages  began  to 
compete  for  the  honor  of  being  the  original. 

Andre  Kempe,  in  1569,  published  a  work  on  the 
language  of  Paradise,  in  which  he  maintained  that 
God  spoke  to  Adam  in  Swedish;  that  Adam 
answered  in  Danish;  and  that  the  serpent  —  which 
appears  to  me  quite  probable  —  spoke  to  Eve  in 
French.  Erro,  in  a  work  published  at  Madrid, 
took  the  ground  that  Basque  was  the  language 
spoken  in  the  Garden  of  Eden;  but  in  1580 
Goropius  published  his  celebrated  work  at  Ant- 
werp, in  which  he  put  the  whole  matter  at  rest  by- 
showing,  beyond  all  doubt,  that  the  language 
spoken  in  Paradise  was  neither  more  nor  less  than 
plain  Holland  Dutch, 

The  real  founder  of  the  science  of  language 
was  Liebnitz,  a  cotemporary  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 
He  discarded  the  idea  that  all  languages  could  be 
traced  to  one  language.  He  maintained  that 
language  was  a  natural  growth.  Experience 
teaches  us  that  this  must  be  so.  Words  are 
continually  dying  and  continually  being  born. 
Words  are  naturally  and  necessarily  produced. 
Words  are  the  garments  of  thought,  the  robes  of 


300  THE  GHOSTS. 

ideas.  Some  are  as  rude  as  the  skins  of  wild 
beasts,  and  others  glisten  and  glitter  like  silk  and 
gold.  They  have  been  born  of  hatred  and 
revenge;  of  love  and  self-sacrifice;  of  hope  and 
fear,  of  agony  and  joy.  These  words  are  born  of 
the  terror  and  beauty  of  nature.  The  stars  have 
fashioned  them.  In  them  mingle  the  darkness  and 
the  dawn.  From  everything  they  have  taken 
something.  Words  are  the  crystalizations  of 
human  history,  of  all  that  man  has  enjoyed  and 
suffered  —  his  victories  and  defeats  —  all  that  he 
has  lost  and  won.  Words  are  the  shadows  of 
all  that  has  been  —  the  mirrors  of  all  that  is. 

The  ghosts  also  enlightened  our  fathers  in 
astronomy  and  geology.  According  to  them  the 
earth  was  made  out  of  nothing,  and  a  little  more 
nothing  having  been  taken  than  was  used  in  the 
construction  of  this  world,  the  stars  were  made  out 
of  what  was  left  over.  Cosmas,  in  the  sixth 
century,  taught  that  the  stars  were  impelled  by 
angels,  who  either  carried  them  on  their  shoulders, 
rolled  them  in  front  of  them,  or  drew  them  after. 
He  also  taught  that  each  angel  that  pushed  a  star 
took  great  pains  to  observe  what  the  other  angels 
were  doing,  so  that  the  relative  distances  between 


THE  GHOSTS.  301 

the  stars  might  always  remain  the  same.  He  also 
gave  his  idea  as  to  the  form  of  the  world. 

He  stated  that  the  world  was  a  vast  parallelo- 
gram; that  on  the  outside  was  a  strip  of  land, 
like  the  frame  of  a  common  slate ;  that  then  there 
was  a  strip  of  water,  and  in  the  middle  a  great 
piece  of  land;  that  Adam  and  Eve  lived  on  the 
outer  strip ;  that  their  descendants,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Noah  family,  were  drowned  by  a  flood 
on  this  outer  strip ;  that  the  ark  finally  rested  on 
the  middle  piece  of  land  where  we  now  are.  He 
accounted  for  night  and  day  by  saying  that  on  the 
outside  strip  of  land  there  was  a  high  mountain, 
around  which  the  sun  and  moon  revolved,  and 
that  when  the  sun  was  on  the  other  side  of  the 
mountain,  it  was  night;  and  when  on  this  side,  it 
was  day. 

He  also  declared  that  the  earth  was  flat.  This 
he  proved  by  many  passages  from  the  Bible. 
Among  other  reasons  for  believing  the  earth  to 
be  flat,  he  brought  forward  the  following  :  We  are 
told  in  the  New  Testament  that  Christ  shall  come 
again  in  glory  and  power,  and  all  the  world  shall 
see  him.  Now,  if  the  world  is  round,  how  are  the 
people  on  the  other  side  going  to  see  Christ  when 


302 


THE  GHOSTS. 


he  comes?  That  settled  the  question,  and  the 
church  not  only  endorsed  the  book,  but  declared 
that  whoever  believed  less  or  more  than  stated  by 
Cosmas,  was  a  heretic. 

In  those  blessed  days,  Ignorance  was  a  king 
and  Science  an  outcast. 

They  knew  the  moment  this  earth  ceased  to  be 
the  centre  of  the  universe,  and  became  a  mere 
speck  in  the  starry  heaven  of  existence,  that  their 
religion  would  become  a  childish  fable  of  the  past. 

In  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  ghosts, 
men  enslaved  their  fellow-men  ;  they  trampled  upon 
the  rights  of  women  and  children.  In  the  name 
and  by  the  authority  of  ghosts,  they  bought  and 
sold  and  destroyed  each  other ;  they  filled  heaven 
with  tyrants  and  earth  with  slaves,  the  present  with 
despair  and  the  future  with  horror.  In  the  name 
and  by  the  authority  of  the  ghosts,  they  imprisoned 
the  human  mind,  polluted  the  conscience,  hardened 
the  heart,  subverted  justice,  crowned  robbery, 
sainted  hypocrisy,  and  extinguished  for  a  thousand 
years  the  torch  of  reason. 

I  have  endeavored,  in  some  faint  degree,  to 
show  you  what  has  happened,  and  what  always  will 
happen  when  men  are  governed  by  superstition  and 


THE  GHOSTS.  303 

fear;  when  they  desert  the  sublime  standard  of 
reason ;  when  they  take  the  words  of  others  and  do 
not  investigate  for  themselves. 

Even  the  great  men  of  those  days  were  nearly 
as  weak  in  this  matter  as  the  most  ignorant. 
Kepler,  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  world,  an 
astronomer  second  to  none,  although  he  plucked 
from  the  stars  the  secrets  of  the  universe,  was  an 
astrologer,  and  really  believed  that  he  could  predict 
the  career  of  a  man  by  finding  what  star  was  in  the 
ascendant  at  his  birth.  This  great  man  breathed, 
so  to  speak,  the  atmosphere  of  his  time.  He 
believed  in  the  music  of  the  spheres,  and  assigned 
alto,  bass,  tenor,  and  treble  to  certain  stars. 

Tycho  Brahe,  another  astronomer,  kept  an  idiot, 
whose  disconnected  and  meaningless  words  he 
carefully  set  down,  and  then  put  them  together  in 
such  manner  as  to  make  prophecies,  and  then 
waited  patiently  to  see  them  fulfilled.  Luther 
believed  that  he  had  actually  seen  the  devil,  and 
had  discussed  points  of  theology  with  him.  The 
human  mind  was  in  chains.  Every  idea  almost  was 
a  monster.  Thought  was  deformed.  Facts  were 
looked  upon  as  worthless.  Only  the  wonderful  was 
worth  preserving.     Things  that  actually  happened 


304 


THE   GHOSTS. 


were  not  considered  worth  recording ;  —  real  occur- 
rences were  too  common.  Everybody  expected 
the  miraculous. 

The  ghosts  were  supposed  to  be  busy ;  devils 
were  thought  to  be  the  most  industrious  things  in 
the  universe,  and  with  these  imps,  every  occurrence 
of  an  unusual  character  was  in  some  way  connected. 
There  was  no  order,  no  serenity,  no  certainty  in 
anything.  Everything  depended  upon  ghosts  and 
phantoms.  Man  was,  for  the  most  part,  at  the 
mercy  of  malevolent  spirits.  He  protected  himself 
as  best  he  could  with  holy  water  and  tapers  and 
wafers  and  cathedrals.  He  made  noises  and  rung 
bells  to  frighten  the  ghosts,  and  he  made  music 
to  charm  them.  He  used  smoke  to  choke  them, 
and  incense  to  please  them.  He  wore  beads  and 
crosses.  He  said  prayers,  and  hired  others  to  say 
them.  He  fasted  when  he  was  hungry,  and  feasted 
when  he  was  not.  He  believed  everything  that 
seemed  unreasonable,  just  to  appease  the  ghosts. 
He  humbled  himself.  He  crawled  in  the  dust. 
He  shut  the  doors  and  windows,  and  excluded 
every  ray  of  light  from  the  temple  of  the  soul. 
He  debauched  and  polluted  his  own  mind,  and 
toiled  night  and  day  to  repair  the  walls  of  his  own 


THE  GHOSTS.  305 

prison.  From  the  garden  of  his  heart  he  plucked 
and  trampled  upon  the  holy  flowers  of  pity. 

The  priests  reveled  in  horrible  descriptions 
of  hell.  Concerning  the  wrath  of  God,  they 
grew  eloquent.  They  denounced  man  as  totally 
depraved.  They  made  reason  blasphemy,  and 
pity  a  crime.  Nothing  so  delighted  them  as 
painting  the  torments  and  sufferings  of  the  lost. 
Over  the  worm  that  never  dies  they  grew  poetic; 
and  the  second  death  filled  them  with  a  kind  of 
holy  delight.  According  to  them,  the  smoke  and 
cries  ascending  from  hell  were  the  perfume  and 
music  of  heaven. 

At  the  risk  of  being  tiresome,  I  have  said  what 
I  have  to  show  you  the  productions  of  the  human 
mind,  when  enslaved ;  the  effects  of  wide-spread 
ignorance  —  the  results  of  fear.  I  want  to  convince 
you  that  every  form  of  slavery  is  a  viper,  that, 
sooner  or  later,  will  strike  its  poison  fangs  into  the 
bosoms  of  men. 

The  first  great  step  towards  progress,  is,  for 
man  to  cease  to  be  the  slave  of  man ;  the  second, 
to  cease  to  be  the  slave  of  the  monsters  of  his  own 
creation — of  the  ghosts  and  phantoms  of  the  air. 

For  ages    the    human    race    was    imprisoned. 


3o6  THE  GHVSTS. 

Through  the  bars  and  grates  came  a  few  struggling 
rays  of  light.  Against  these  grates  and  bars 
Science  pressed  its  pale  and  thoughtful  face,  wooed 
by  the  holy  dawn  of  human  advancement. 

Men  found  that  the  real  was  the  useful;  that 
what  a  man  knows  is  better  than  what  a  ghost 
says;  that  an  event  is  more  valuable  than  a 
prophecy.  They  found  that  diseases  were  not 
produced  by  spirits,  and  could  not  be  cured  by 
frightening  them  away.  They  found  that  death 
was  as  natural  as  life.  They  began  to  study  the 
anatomy  and  chemistry  of  the  human  body,  and 
found  that  all  was  natural  and  within  the  domain 
of  law. 

The  conjurer  and  sorcerer  were  discarded,  and 
the  physician  and  surgeon  employed.  They  found 
that  the  earth  was  not  flat ;  that  the  stars  were  not 
mere  specks.  They  found  that  being  born  under  a 
particular  planet  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
fortunes  of  men. 

The  astrologer  was  discharged  and  the  astron- 
omer took  his  place. 

They  found  that  the  earth  had  swept  through 
the  constellations  for  millions  of  ages.  They 
found  that  good  and  evil  were  produced  by  natural 


THE  GHOSTS.  307 

causes,  and  not  by  ghosts ;  that  man  could  not  be 
good  enough  or  bad  enough  to  stop  or  cause  a 
rain ;  that  diseases  were  produced  as  naturally  as 
grass,  and  were  not  sent  as  punishments  upon 
man  for  failing  to  believe  a  certain  creed.  They 
found  that  man,  through  intelligence,  could  take 
advantage  of  the  forces  of  nature  —  that  he  could 
make  the  waves,  the  winds,  the  flames,  and  the 
lightnings  of  heaven  do  his  bidding  and  minister  to 
his  wants.  They  found  that  the  ghosts  knew 
nothing  of  benefit  to  man ;  that  they  were  utterly 
ignorant  of  geology — of  astronomy  —  of  geogra- 
phy;—  that  they  knew  nothing  of  history;  —  that 
they  were  poor  doctors  and  worse  surgeons;  —  that 
they  knew  nothing  of  law  and  less  of  justice ; 
that  they  were  without  brains,  and  utterly  destitute 
of  hearts ;  that  they  knew  nothing  of  the  rights  of 
men;  that  they  were  despisers  of  women,  the 
haters  of  progress,  the  enemies  of  science,  and  the 
destroyers  of  liberty. 

The  condition  of  the  world  during  the  Dark 
Ages  shows  exactly  the  result  of  enslaving  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  men.  In  those  days  there  was 
no  freedom.     Labor  was  despised,  and  a  laborer 


3o8  THE  GHOSTS. 

was  considered  but  little  above  a  beast.  Ignorance, 
like  a  vast  cowl,  covered  the  brain  of  the  world, 
and  superstition  ran  riot  with  the  imagination  of 
man.  The  air  was  filled  with  angels,  with  demons 
and  monsters.  Credulity  sat  upon  the  throne  of 
the  soul,  and  Reason  was  an  exiled  king.  A  man 
to  be  distinguished  must  be  a  soldier  or  a  monk. 
War  and  theology,  that  is  to  say,  murder  and 
hypocrisy,  were  the  principal  employments  of  man. 
Industry  was  a  slave,  theft  was  commerce  ;  murder 
was  war,  hypocrisy  was  religion. 

Every  Christian  country  maintained  that  it  was 
no  robbery  to  take  the  property  of  Mohammedans 
by  force,  and  no  murder  to  kill  the  owners.  Lord 
Bacon  was  the  first  man  of  note  who  maintained 
that  a  Christian  country  was  bound  to  keep  its 
plighted  faith  with  an  infidel  nation.  Reading  and 
writing  were  considered  dangerous  arts.  Every 
layman  who  could  read  and  write  was  suspected  of 
being  a  heretic.  All  thought  was  discouraged. 
They  forged  chains  of  superstition  for  the  minds, 
and  manacles  of  iron  for  the  bodies  of  men.  The 
earth  was  ruled  by  the  cowl  and  sword, —  by  the 
mitre  and  scepter, — by  the  altar  and  throne, —  by 
Fear  and  Force, — by  Ignorance  and  Faith, — by 
ghouls  and  ghosts. 


THE  GHOSTS.  309 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  following  law  was 
in  force  in  England: 

"That  whosoever  reads  the  Scriptures  in  the 
mother  tongue,  shall  forfeit  land,  cattle,  life,  and 
goods  from  their  heirs  forever,  and  so  be  condemned 
for  heretics  to  God,  enemies  to  the  crown,  and 
most  arrant  traitors  to  the  land." 

During  the  first  year  this  law  was  in  force  thirty- 
nine  were  hanged  for  its  violation  and  their  bodies 
burned. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  men  were  burned  be- 
cause they  failed  to  kneel  to  a  procession  of  monks. 

The  slightest  word  uttered  against  the  supersti- 
tion of  the  time  was  punished  with  death. 

Even  the  reformers,  so-called,  of  those  days, 
had  no  idea  of  intellectual  liberty  —  no  idea  even 
of  toleration.  Luther,  Knox,  Calvin,  believed  in 
religious  liberty  only  when  they  were  in  the  minor- 
ity. The  moment  they  were  clothed  with  power 
they  began  to  exterminate  with  fire  and  sword. 

Castalio  was  the  first  minister  who  advocated 
the  liberty  of  the  soul.  He  was  regarded  by  the 
reformers  as  a  criminal,  and  treated  as  though  he 
had  committed  the  crime  of  crimes. 

Bodinus,  a  lawyer  of  France,  about  the  same 


3IO  THE  GHOSTS. 

time,  wrote  a  few  words  in  favor  of  the  freedom  of 
conscience,  but  public  opinion  was  overwhelmingly 
against  him.  The  people  were  ready,  anxious,  and 
willing,  with  whip,  and  chain,  and  fire,  to  drive 
from  the  mind  of  man  the  heresy  that  he  had  a 
right  to  think. 

Montaigne,  a  man  blest  with  so  much  common 
sense  that  he  was  the  most  uncommon  man  of  his 
time,  was  the  first  to  raise  a  voice  against  torture 
in  France.  But  what  was  the  voice  of  one  man 
against  the  terrible  cry  of  ignorant,  infatuated,  su- 
perstitious and  malevolent  millions?  It  was  the 
cry  of  a  drowning  man  in  the  wild  roar  of  the  cruel 
sea. 

In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  brave  few  the  in- 
famous war  against  the  freedom  of  the  soul  was 
waged  until  at  least  one  hundred  millions  of  human 
beings  —  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  sisters  —  with 
hopes,  loves,  and  aspirations  like  ourselves,  were 
sacrificed  upon  the  cruel  altar  of  an  ignorant  faith. 
They  perished  in  every  way  by  which  death  can  be 
produced.  Every  nerve  of  pain  was  sought  out 
and  touched  by  the  believers  in  ghosts. 

For  my  part  I  glory  in  the  fact,  that  here  in 
the  New  World, — in  the  United  States, — liberty  of 


THE  GHOSTS.  311 

conscience  was  first  guaranteed  to  man,  and  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  the  first 
great  decree  entered  in  the  high  court  of  human 
equity  forever  divorcing  church  and  state, — the 
first  injunction  granted  against  the  interference  of 
the  ghosts.  This  was  one  of  the  grandest  steps 
ever  taken  by  the  human  race  in  the  direction  of 
Progress. 

You  will  ask  what  has  caused  this  wonderful 
change  in  three  hundred  years!  And  I  answer — 
the  inventions  and  discoveries  of  the  few;  —  the 
brave  thoughts,  the  heroic  utterances  of  the  few; 
' — the  acquisition  of  a  few  facts. 

Besides,  you  must  remember  that  every  wrong 
in  some  way  tends  to  abolish  itself.  It  is  hard  to 
make  a  lie  stand  always.  A  lie  will  not  fit  a  fact. 
It  will  only  fit  another  lie  made  for  the  purpose. 
The  life  of  a  lie  is  simply  a  question  of  time. 
Nothing  but  truth  is  immortal.  The  nobles  and 
kings  quarreled; — the  priests  began  to  dispute; — 
the  ideas  of  government  began  to  change. 

In  1 44 1  printing  was  discovered.  At  that  time 
the  past  was  a  vast  cemetery  with  hardly  an 
epitaph.  The  ideas  of  men  had  mostly  perished 
in  the  brain  that  produced  them.     The  lips  of  the 


312  THE  GHOSTS. 

human  race  had  been  sealed.  Printing  gave 
pinions  to  thought.  It  preserved  ideas.  It  made 
it  possible  for  man  to  bequeath  to  the  future  the 
riches  of  his  brain,  the  wealth  of  his  soul.  At 
first,  it  was  '\sed  to  flood  the  world  with  the 
mistakes  of  the  ancients,  but  since  that  time  it  has 
been  flooding  the  world  with  light. 

When  people  read  they  begin  to  reason,  and 
when  they  reason  they  progress.  This  was  another 
grand  step  in  the  direction  of  Progress. 

The  discovery  of  powder,  that  put  the  peasant 
almost  upon  a  par  with  the  prince;  —  that  put  an 
end  to  the  so-called  age  of  chivalry; — that  released 
avast  number  of  men  from  the  armies;  —  that  gave 
pluck  and  nerve  a  chance  with  brute  strength. 

The  discovery  of  America,  whose  shores  were 
trod  by  the  restless  feet  of  adventure; — that 
brought  people  holding  every  shade  of  superstition 
together ; —  that  gave  the  world  an  opportunity  to 
compare  notes,  and  to  laugh  at  the  follies  of  each 
other.  Out  of  this  strange  mingling  of  all  creeds, 
and  superstitions,  and  facts,  and  theories,  and 
countless  opinions,  came  the  Great  Republic. 

Every  fact  has  pushed  a  superstition  from  the 
brain  and  a  ghost  from   the   clouds.     Every  me- 


THE  GHOSTS.  313 

chanic  art  is  an  educator.  Every  loom,  every 
reaper  and  mower,  every  steamboat,  every  locomo- 
tive, every  engine,  every  press,  every  telegraph,  is 
a  missionary  of  Science  and  an  apostle  of  Progress. 
Every  mill,  every  furnace,  every  building  with  its 
wheels  and  levers,  in  which  something  is  made  for 
the  convenience,  for  the  use,  and  for  the  comfort 
and  elevation  of  man,  is  a  church,  and  every  school- 
house  is  a  temple. 

Education  is  the  most  radical  thing  in  the  world. 
To  teach  the  alphabet  is  to  inaugurate   a  revo- 
lution. 

To  build  a  schoolhouse  is  to  construct  a  fort. 
Every    library   is    an    arsenal    filled    with    the 
weapons  and  ammunition  of  Progress,  and   every 
fact  is  a  monitor  with  sides  of  iron  and  a  turret  of 
steel. 

I  thank  the  inventors,  the  discoverers,  the 
thinkerSo  I  thank  Columbus  and  Magellan,  I 
thank  Galileo,  and  Copernicus,  and  Kepler,  and 
Descartes,  and  Newton,  and  Laplace.  I  thank 
Locke,  and  Hume,  and  Bacon,  and  Shakespeare, 
and  Kant,  and  FIchte,  and  Leibnitz,  and  Goethcc 
I  thank  Fulton,  and  Watts,  and  Volta,  and  Galvani, 
and  Franklin,  and  Morse,  who  made  lightning  the 


314  THE  GHOSTS. 

messenger  of  man.  I  thank  Humboldt,  the 
Shakespeare  of  science.  I  thank  Crompton  and 
Arkwright,  from  whose  brains  leaped  the  looms 
and  spindles  that  clothe  the  world.  I  thank 
Luther  for  protesting  against  the  abuses  of  the 
church,  and  I  denounce  him  because  he  was  the 
enemy  of  liberty.  I  thank  Calvin  for  writing  a 
book  in  favor  of  religious  freedom,  and  I  abhor 
him  because  he  burned  Servetus.  I  thank  Knox 
for  resisting  Episcopal  persecution,  and  I  hate 
him  because  he  persecuted  in  his  turn.  I  thank 
the  Puritans  for  saying  "Resistance  to  tyrants 
is  obedience  to  God,"  and  yet  I  am  compelled 
to  say  that  they  were  tyrants  themselves.  I  thank 
Thomas  Paine  because  he  was  a  believer  in  liberty, 
and  because  he  did  as  much  to  make  my  country 
free  as  any  other  human  being.  I  thank  Voltaire, 
that  great  man  who,  for  half  a  century,  was  the 
intellectual  emperor  of  Europe,  and  who,  from  his 
throne  at  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  pointed  the  finger 
of  scorn  at  every  hypocrite  in  Christendom.  I 
thank  Darwin,  Haeckel  and  Biichner,  Spencer, 
Tyndall  and  Huxley,  Draper,  Lecky  and  Buckle. 
I  thank  the  inventors,  the  discoverers,  the 
thinkers,  the  scientists,  the  explorers.  I  thank 
the  honest  millions  who  have  toiled. 


THE  GHOSTS.  315 

I  thank  the  brave  men  with  brave  thoughts. 
They  are  the  Atlases  upon  whose  broad  and  mighty 
shoulders  rests  the  grand  fabric  of  civilization. 
They  are  the  men  who  have  broken,  and  are  still 
breaking,  the  chains  of  Superstition.  They  are  the 
Titans  who  carried  Olympus  by  assault,  and  who 
will  soon  stand  victors  upon  Sinai's  crags. 

We  are  beginning  to  learn  that  to  exchange  a 
mistake  for  the  truth  —  a  superstition  for  a  fact  — 
to  ascertain  the  real  —  is  to  progress. 

Happiness  is  the  only  possible  good,  and  all 
that  tends  to  the  happiness  of  man  is  right,  and  is 
of  value.  All  that  tends  to  develop  the  bodies  and 
minds  of  men ;  all  that  gives  us  better  houses,  bet- 
ter clothes,  better  food,  better  pictures,  grander 
music,  better  heads,  better  hearts ;  all  that  renders 
us  more  intellectual  and  more  loving,  nearer  just; 
that  makes  us  better  husbands  and  wives,  better 
children,  better  citizens — all  these  things  combined 
produce  what  I  call  Progress. 

Man  advances  only  as  he  overcomes  the  ob- 
structions of  Nature,  and  this  can  be  done  only  by 
labor  and  by  thought.  Labor  is  the  foundation  of 
all.     Without  labor,  and  without  great  labor,  prog- 


3i6  THE  GHOSTS. 

ress  is  impossible.  The  progress  of  the  world 
depends  upon  the  men  who  walk  in  the  fresh  fur- 
rows and  through  the  rustling  corn;  upon  those 
who  sow  and  reap;  upon  those  whose  faces  are 
radiant  with  the  glare  of  furnace  fires ;  upon  the 
delvers  in  the  mines,  and  the  workers  in  shops; 
upon  those  who  give  to  the  winter  air  the  ringing 
music  of  the  axe ;  upon  those  who  battle  with  the 
boisterous  billows  of  the  sea;  upon  the  inventors 
and  discoverers ;  upon  the  brave  thinkers. 

From  the  surplus  produced  by  labor,  schools 
and  universities  are  built  and  fostered.  From  this 
surplus  the  painter  is  paid  for  the  productions  of 
the  pencil ;  the  sculptor  for  chiseling  shapeless  rock 
into  forms  divinely  beautiful,  and  the  poet  for  sing- 
ing the  hopes,  the  loves,  the  memories,  and  the 
aspirations  of  the  world.  This  surplus  has  given 
us  the  books  in  which  we  converse  with  the  dead 
and  living  kings  of  the  human  race.  It  has  given 
us  all  there  is  of  beauty,  of  elegance,  and  of  re- 
fined happiness. 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  a  vast  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  what  progress  really  is  ;  that  many 
denounce  the  ideas  of  to-day  as  destructive  of  all 
happiness — of  all  good,      I    know   that  there   are 


THE  GHOSTS.  317 

many  worshipers  of  the  past.  They  venerate  the 
ancient  because  it  is  ancient.  They  see  no  beauty 
in  anything  from  which  they  do  not  blow  the  dust 
of  ages  with  the  breath  of  praise.  They  say,  no 
masters  like  the  old;  no  religion,  no  governments 
like  the  ancient ;  no  orators,  no  poets,  no  statesmen 
like  those  who  have  been  dust  for  two  thousand 
years.  Others  love  the  modern  simply  because 
it  is  modern. 

We  should  have  gratitude  enough  to  acknowl- 
edge the  obligations  we  are  under  to  the  great 
and  heroic  of  antiquity,  and  independence  enough 
not  to  believe  what  they  said  simply  because  they 
said  it. 

With  the  idea  that  labor  is  the  basis  of  progress 
goes  the  truth  that  labor  must  be  free.  The 
laborer  must  be  a  free  man. 

The  free  man,  working  for  wife  and  child,  gets 
his  head  and  hands  in  partnership. 

To  do  the  greatest  amount  of  work  in  the 
shortest  space  of  time,  is  the  problem  of  free  labor. 

Slavery  does  the  least  work  in  the  longest  space 
of  time. 

Free  labor  will  give  us  wealth.  Free  thought 
will  give  us  truth. 


318  THE  GHOSTS. 

Slowly  but  surely  man  is  freeing  his  imagination 
of  these  sexless  phantoms,  of  these  cruel  ghosts. 
Slowly  but  surely  he  is  rising  above  the  super- 
stitions of  the  past.  He  is  learning  to  rely  upon 
himself.  He  is  beginning  to  find  that  labor  is  the 
only  prayer  that  ought  to  be  answered,  and  that 
hoping,  toiling,  aspiring,  suffering  men  and  women 
are  of  more  importance  than  all  the  ghosts  that 
ever  wandered  through  the  fenceless  fields  of 
space. 

The  believers  in  ghosts  claim  still,  that  they  are 
the  only  wise  and  virtuous  people  upon  the  earth ; 
claim  still,  that  there  is  a  difference  between  them 
and  unbelievers  so  vast,  that  they  will  be  infinitely 
rewarded,  and  the  others  infinitely  punished. 

I  ask  you  to-night,  do  the  theories  and  doctrines 
of  the  theologians  satisfy  the  heart  or  brain  of  the 
nineteenth  century  .-* 

Have  the  churches  the  confidence  of  mankind  ? 

Does  the  merchant  give  credit  to  a  man  because 
he  belongs  to  a  church  ? 

Does  the  banker  loan  money  to  a  man  because 
he  is  a  Methodist  or  Baptist? 

Will  a  certificate  of  good  standing  in  any  church 
be  taken  as  collateral  security  for  one  dollar  ? 


THE  GHOSTS.  319 

Will  you  take  the  word  of  a  church  member,  or 
his  note,  or  his  oath,  simply  because  he  is  a  church 
member  ? 

Are  the  clergy,  as  a  class,  better,  kinder  and 
more  generous  to  their  families  — to  their  fellow-men 

—  than  doctors,  lawyers,  merchants  and  farmers? 

Does  a  belief  in  ghosts  and  unreasonable  things 
necessarily  make  people  honest? 

When  a  man  loses  confidence  in  Moses,  must 
the  people  lose  confidence  in  him? 

Does  not  the  credit  system  in  morals  breed 
extravagance  in  sin? 

Why  send  missionaries  to  other  lands  while 
every  penitentiary  in  ours  is  filled  with  criminals  ? 

Is  it  philosophical  to  say  that  they  who  do  right 
carry  a  cross  ? 

Is  it  a  source  of  joy  to  think  that  perdition  is 
the  destination  of  nearly  all  of  the  children  of  men  ? 

Is   it  worth  while   to  quarrel  about  original  sin 

—  when  there  is  so  much  copy? 

Does  it  pay  to  dispute  about  baptism,  and  the 
Trinity, and  predestination,  and  apostolic  succession 
and  the  infallibility  of  churches,  of  popes  and  of 
books?     Does  all  this  do  any  good? 


320  THE  GHOSTS. 

Are  the  theologians  welcomers  of  new  truths? 
Are  they  noted  for  their  candor?  Do  they  treat 
an  opponent  with  common  fairness?  Are  they 
investigators?  Do  they  pull  forward,  or  do  they 
hold  back? 

Is  science  indebted  to  the  church  for  a  solitary 
fact? 

What  church  is  an  asylum  for  a  persecuted 
truth? 

What  great  reform  has  been  inaugurated  by  the 
church  ? 

Did  the  church  abolish  slavery? 

Has  the  church  raised  its  voice  against  war? 

I  used  to  think  that  there  was  in  religion  no  real 
restraining  force.  Upon  this  point  my  mind  has 
changed.  Religion  will  prevent  man  from  com- 
mitting artificial  crimes  and  offences. 

A  man  committed  murder.  The  evidence  was 
so  conclusive  that  he  confessed  his  guilt. 

He  was  asked  why  he  killed  his  fellow-man. 

He  replied:     "  For  money." 
Did  you  get  any  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"How  much?" 

"Fifteen  cents." 


THE  GHOSTS. 


321 


"What  did  you  do  with  this  money?" 
"Spent  it." 
"What  for?" 
"  Liquor." 

"What  else  did  you  find  upon  the  dead  man?" 
"He  had  his  dinner  in  a  bucket — some  meat 
and  bread." 

"  What  did  you  do  with  that? " 

"I  ate  the  bread." 

"What  did  you  do  with  the  meat?" 

"I  threw  it  away." 

"Why?" 

"  It  was  Friday." 

Just  to  the  extent  that  man  has  freed  himself 
from  the  dominion  of  ghosts  he  has  advanced.  Just 
to  the  extent  that  he  has  freed  himself  from  the 
tyrants  of  his  own  creation  he  has  progressed. 
Just  to  the  extent  that  he  has  investigated  for  him- 
self he  has  lost  confidence  in  superstition. 

With  knowledge  obedience  becomes  intelligent 
acquiescence — it  is  no  longer  degrading.  Acquies- 
cence in  the  understood — in  the  known  —  is  the 
act  of  a  sovereign,  not  of  a  slave.  It  ennobles,  it 
does  not  degrade. 
5 


322  THE  GHOSTS. 

Man  has  found  that  he  must  give  liberty  to 
others  in  order  to  have  it  himself.  He  has  found 
that  a  master  is  also  a  slave ; — that  a  tyrant  is  him- 
self a  serf.  He  has  found  that  governments  should 
be  founded  and  administered  by  man  and  for 
man;  that  the  rights  of  all  are  equal;  that  the 
powers  that  be  are  not  ordained  by  God;  that 
woman  is  at  least  the  equal  of  man ;  that  men  ex- 
isted before  books;  that  religion  is  one  of  the 
phases  of  thought  through  which  the  world  is  pass- 
ing ;  that  all  creeds  were  made  by  man ;  that  every- 
thing is  natural ;  that  a  miracle  is  an  impossibility ; 
that  we  know  nothing  of  origin  and  destiny ;  that 
concerning  the  unknown  we  are  all  equally  igno- 
rant ;  that  the  pew  has  the  right  to  contradict  what 
the  pulpit  asserts ;  that  man  is  responsible  only  to 
himself  and  those  he  injures,  and  that  all  have  a 
right  to  think. 

True  religion  must  be  free.  Without  perfect 
liberty  of  the  mind  there  can  be  no  true  religion. 
Without  liberty  the  brain  is  a  dungeon  —  the  mind 
a  convict.  The  slave  may  bow  and  cringe  and 
crawl,  but  he  cannot  adore — he  cannot  love. 

True  religion  is  the  perfume  of  a  free  and  grate- 
ful heart.     True  religion  is  a  subordination  of  the 


THE  GHOSTS.  323 

passions  to  the  perceptions  of  the  intellect.  True 
religion  is  not  a  theory — it  is  a  practice.  It  is  not 
a  creed — it  is  a  life. 

A  theory  that  is  afraid  of  investigation  is  unde- 
serving a  place  in  the  human  mind. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  tell  what  all  the  truth  is.  I 
do  not  pretend  to  have  fathomed  the  abyss,  nor  to 
have  floated  on  outstretched  wings  level  with  the 
dim  heights  of  thought.  I  simply  plead  for  freedom, 
I  denounce  the  cruelties  and  horrors  of  slavery.  I 
ask  for  light  and  air  for  the  souls  of  men.  I  say, 
take  off  those  chains — break  those  manacles — free 
those  limbs — release  that  brain!  I  plead  for  the 
right  to  think — to  reason — to  investigate.  I  ask 
that  the  future  may  be  enriched  with  the  honest 
thoughts  of  men.  I  implore  every  human  being  to 
be  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  progress. 

I  will  not  invade  the  rights  of  others.  You 
have  no  right  to  erect  your  toll-gate  upon  the 
highways  of  thought.  You  have  no  right  to  leap 
from  the  hedges  of  superstition  and  strike  down 
the  pioneers  of  the  human  race.  You  have  no 
right  to  sacrifice  the  liberties  of  man  upon  the 
altars  of  ghosts.     Believe  what  you  may;  preach 


324  THE   GHOSTS. 

what  you  desire ;  have  all  the  forms  and  ceremonies 
you  please ;  exercise  your  liberty  in  your  own  way 
but  extend  to  all  others  the  same  right, 

I  will  not  attack  your  doctrines  nor  your  creeds 
if  they  accord  liberty  to  me.  If  they  hold  thought 
to  be  dangerous  —  if  they  aver  that  doubt  is  a 
crime,  then  I  attack  them  one  and  all,  because  they 
enslave  the  minds  of  men. 

I  attack  the  monsters,  the  phantoms  of  imagi- 
nation that  have  ruled  the  world.  I  attack  slavery. 
I  ask  for  room — room  for  the  human  mind. 

Why  should  we  sacrifice  a  real  world  that  we 
have,  for  one  we  know  not  of?  Why  should  we 
enslave  ourselves?  Why  should  we  forge  fetters 
for  our  own  hands?  Why  should  we  be  the  slaves 
of  phantoms.  The  darkness  of  barbarism  was  the 
womb  of  these  shadows.  In  the  light  of  science 
they  cannot  cloud  the  sky  forever.  They  have 
reddened  the  hands  of  man  with  innocent  blood. 
They  made  the  cradle  a  curse,  and  the  grave 
a   place    of   torment. 

They  blinded  the  eyes  and  stopped  the  ears  of 
the  human  race.  They  subverted  all  ideas  of 
justice  by  promising  infinite  rewards  for  finite 
virtues,  and  threatening  infinite  punishment  for 
finite  offences. 


THE   GHOSTS.  325 

They  filled  the  future  with  heavens  and  with 
hells,  with  the  shining  peaks  of  selfish  joy  and  the 
lurid  abysses  of  flame.  For  ages  they  kept  the 
world  in  ignorance  and  awe,  in  want  and  misery,  in 
fear  and  chains. 

I  plead  for  light,  for  air,  for  opportunity.  I 
plead  for  individual  independence.  I  plead  for  the 
rights  of  labor  and  of  thought.  I  plead  for  a 
chainless  future.  Let  the  ghosts  go  —  justice 
remains.  Let  them  disappear  —  men  and  women 
and  children  are  left.  Let  the  monsters  fade  away 
—  the  world  is  here  with  its  hills  and  seas  and 
plains,  with  its  seasons  of  smiles  and  frowns,  its 
spring  of  leaf  and  bud,  its  summer  of  shade  and 
flower  and  murmuring  stream ;  its  autumn  with  the 
laden  boughs,  when  the  withered  banners  of  the 
corn  are  still,  and  gathered  fields  are  growing 
strangely  wan;  while  death,  poetic  death,  with 
hands  that  color  what  they  touch,  weaves  in  the 
Autumn  wood  her  tapestries  of  gold  and  brown. 

The  world  remains  with  its  winters  and  homes 
and  firesides,  where  grow  and  bloom  the  virtues  of 
our  race.  All  these  are  left;  and  music,  with  its 
sad  and  thrilling  voice,  and  all  there  is  of  art  and 
song  and  hope  and  love  and  aspiration  high.     All 


326  THE  GHOSTS. 

these  remain.  Let  the  ghosts  go  —  we  will  worship 
them  no  more. 

Man  is  greater  than  these  phantoms.  Humanity- 
is  grander  than  all  the  creeds,  than  all  the  books. 
Humanity  is  the  great  sea,  and  these  creeds,  and 
books,  and  religions,  are  but  the  waves  of  a  day. 
Hum.anity  is  the  sky,  and  these  religions  and 
dogmSis^and  theories  are  but  the  mists  and  clouds 
changing  continually,  destined  finally  to  melt  away. 

That  which  is  founded  upon  slavery,  and  fear, 
and  ignorance,  cannot  endure.  In  the  religion  of 
the  future  there  will  be  men  and  women  and 
children,  all  the  aspirations  of  the  soul,  and  all  the 
tender  humanities  of  the  heart. 

Let  the  ghosts  go.  We  will  worship  them  no 
more.  Let  them  cover  their  eyeless  sockets  with 
their  fleshless  hands  and  fade  forever  from  the 
imaginations  of  men. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF 
MAN,  WOMAN,  AND  CHILD. 


329 


THE    LIBERTY    OF 

MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD. 


Liberty  sustains  the  same  Relation  to  Mind  that  Space 
DOES  TO  Matter. 

THERE  is  no  slavery  but  ignorance.  Liberty 
is  the  child  of  intelligence. 
The  history  of  man  is  simply  the  history  of 
slavery,  of  injustice  and  brutality,  together  with 
the  means  by  which  he  has,  through  the  dead  and 
desolate  years,  slowly  and  painfully  advanced.  He 
has  been  the  sport  and  prey  of  priest  and  king,  the 
food  of  superstition  and  cruel  might.  Crowned 
force  has  governed  ignorance  through  fear.  Hy- 
pocrisy and  tyranny  —  two  vultures  —  have  fed 
upon  the  liberties  of  man.  From  all  these  there 
has  been,  and  is,  but  one  means  of  escape  —  intel- 
lectual development.  Upon  the  back  of  industry 
has  been  the  whip.  Upon  the  brain  have  been  the 
fetters    of    superstition.       Nothing    has    been   left 


330  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

undone  by  the  enemies  of  freedom.  Every  art 
and  artifice,  every  cruelty  and  outrage  has  been 
practiced  and  perpetrated  to  destroy  the  rights  of 
man.  In  this  great  struggle  every  crime  has  been 
rewarded  and  every  virtue  has  been  punished. 
Reading,  writing,  thinking  and  investigating  have 
all  been  crimes. 

Every  science  has  been  an  outcast. 

All  the  altars  and  all  the  thrones  united  to 
arrest  the  forward  march  of  the  human  race.  The 
king  said  that  mankind  must  not  work  for  them- 
selves. The  priest  said  that  mankind  must  not 
think  for  themselves.  One  forged  chains  for  the 
hands,  the  other  for  the  soul.  Under  this  infamous 
regime  the  eagle  of  the  human  intellect  was  for 
ages  a  slimy  serpent  of  hypocrisy. 

The  human  race  was  imprisoned.  Through 
some  of  the  prison  bars  came  a  few  struggling  rays 
of  light.  Against  these  bars  Science  pressed  its 
pale  and  thoughtful  face,  wooed  by  the  holy  dawn 
of  human  advancement.  Bar  after  bar  was  broken 
away.  A  few  grand  men  escaped  and  devoted 
their  lives  to  the  liberation  of  their  fellows. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  there  was  a  great 
awakening  of  the   human  mind.     Men   began   tp 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  331 

inquire  by  what  right  a  crowned  robber  made 
them  work  for  him?  The  man  who  asked  this 
question  was  called  a  traitor.  Others  asked  by 
what  right  does  a  robed  hypocrite  rule  my  thought  ? 
Such  men  were  called  infidels.  The  priest  said, 
and  the  king  said,  where  is  this  spirit  of  investiga- 
tion to  stop?  They  said  then  and  they  say  now, 
that  it  is  dangerous  for  man  to  be  free.  I  deny  it. 
Out  on  the  intellectual  sea  there  is  room  enough 
for  every  sail.  In  the  intellectual  air  there  is  space 
enough  for  every  wing. 

The  man  who  does  not  do  his  own  thinking  is  a 
slave,  and  is  a  traitor  to  himself  and  to  his  fellow- 
men. 

Every  man  should  stand  under  the  blue  and 
stars,  under  the  infinite  flag  of  nature,  the  peer  of 
every  other  man.  » 

Standing  in  the  presence  of  the  Unknown,  all 
have  the  same  right  to  think,  and  all  are  equally 
interested  in  the  great  questions  of  origin  and 
destiny.  All  I  claim,  all  I  plead  for,  is  liberty  of 
thought  and  expression.  That  is  all.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  tell  what  is  absolutely  true,  but  what  I 
think  is  true.     I  do  not  pretend  to  tell  all  the  truth. 

I  do  not  claim  that  I  have  floated  level  with  the 


332  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

heights  of  thought,  or  that  I  have  descended  to  the 
very  depths  of  things.  I  simply  claim  that  what 
ideas  I  have,  I  have  a  right  to  express ;  and  that 
any  man  who  denies  that  right  to  me  is  an  intel- 
lectual thief  and  robber.     That  is  all. 

Take  those  chains  from  the  human  soul.  Break 
those  fetters.  If  I  have  no  right  to  think,  why 
have  I  a  brain?  If  I  have  no  such  right,  have 
three  or  four  men,  or  any  number,  who  may  get 
together,  and  sign  a  creed,  and  build  a  house,  and 
put  a  steeple  upon  it,  and  a  bell  in  it — have  they 
the  right  to  think?  The  good  men,  the  good 
women  are  tired  of  the  whip  and  lash  in  the  realm 
of  thought.  They  remember  the  chain  and  fagot 
with  a  shudder.  They  are  free,  and  they  give 
liberty  to  others.  Whoever  claims  any  right  that 
he  is  unwilling  to  accord  to  his  fellow-men  is  dis- 
honest and  infamous. 

In  the  good  old  times,  our  fathers  had  the  idea 
that  they  could  make  people  believe  to  suit  them. 
Our  ancestors,  in  the  ages  that  are  gone,  really 
believed  that  by  force  you  could  convince  a  man. 
You  cannot  change  the  conclusion  of  the  brain  by 
torture ;  nor  by  social  ostracism.  But  I  will  tell 
you  what  you  can  do  by  these,  and  what  you  have 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  333 

done.  You  can  make  hypocrites  by  the  million. 
You  can  make  a  man  say  that  he  has  changed  his 
mind;  but  he  remains  of  the  same  opinion  still. 
Put  fetters  all  over  him;  crush  his  feet  in  iron 
boots;  stretch  him  to  the  last  gasp  upon  the  holy 
rack ;  burn  him,  if  you  please,  but  his  ashes  will  be 
of  the  same  opinion  still. 

Our  fathers  in  the  good  old  times  —  and  the 
best  thing  I  can  say  about  them  is,  that  they  have 
passed  away  —  had  an  idea  that  they  could  force 
men  to  think  their  way.  That  idea  is  still  prevalent 
in  many  parts,  even  of  this  country.  Even  in  our 
day  some  extremely  religious  people  say,  "  We  will 
not  trade  with  that  man ;  we  will  not  vote  for  him ; 
we  will  not  hire  him  if  he  is  a  lawyer;  we  will  die 
before  we  will  take  his  medicine  if  he  is  a  doctor; 
we  will  not  invite  him  to  dinner;  we  will  socially 
ostracise  him;  he  must  come  to  our  church;  he 
must  believe  our  doctrines;  he  must  worship  our 
god  or  we  will  not  in  any  way  contribute  to  his 
support." 

In  the  old  times  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
they  desired  to  make  all  men  think  exactly  alike. 
All  the  mechanical  ingenuity  of  the  world  cannot 
make  two  clocks  run  exactly  alike,  and  how  are  you 


334  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

going  to  make  hundreds  of  millions  of  people,  dif- 
fering in  brain  and  disposition,  in  education  and 
aspiration,  in  conditions  and  surroundings,  each 
clad  in  a  living  robe  of  passionate  flesh  —  how  are 
you  going  to  make  them  think  and  feel  alike  ?  If 
there  is  an  infinite  god,  one  who  made  us,  and 
wishes  us  to  think  alike,  why  did  he  give  a  spoonful 
of  brains  to  one,  and  a  magnificent  intellectual 
development  to  another?  Why  is  it  that  we  have 
all  degrees  of  intelligence,  from  orthodoxy  to 
genius,  if  it  was  intended  that  all  should  think  and 
feel  alike? 

I  used  to  read  in  books  how  our  fathers  perse- 
cuted mankind.  But  I  never  appreciated  it.  I  read 
it,  but  it  did  not  burn  itself  into  my  soul.  1  did  not 
really  appreciate  the  infamies  that  have  been  com- 
mitted m  the  name  of  religion,  until  I  saw  the  iron 
arguments  that  Christians  used.  I  saw  the  Thumb- 
screw—  two  little  pieces  of  iron,  armed  on  the 
inner  surfaces  with  protuberances,  to  prevent  their 
slipping  ;  through  each  end  a  screw  uniting  the  two 
pieces.  And  when  some  man  denied  the  efficacy 
of  baptism,  or  may  be  said,  "  I  do  not  believe  that 
a  fish  ever  swallowed  a  man  to  keep  him  from 
drowning,"  then  they  put  his  thumb  between  these 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  335 

pieces  of  iron  and  in  the  name  of  love  and 
universal  forgiveness,  began  to  screw  these  pieces 
together.  When  this  was  done  most  men  said,  "1 
will  recant."  Probably  I  should  have  done  the 
same.  Probably  I  would  have  said  :  "  Stop  ;  I  will 
admit  anything  that  you  wish;  I  will  admit  that 
there  is  one  god  or  a  million,  one  hell  or  a  billion ; 
suit  yourselves  ;  but  stop." 

But  there  was  now  and  then  a  man  who  would 
not  swerve  the  breadth  of  a  hair.  There  was  now 
and  then  some  sublime  heart,  willing  to  die  for  an 
intellectual  conviction.  Had  it  not  been  for  such 
men,  we  wouH  be  savages  to-night.  Had  it  not 
been  for  a  few  brave,  heroic  souls  in  every  age,  we 
would  have  been  cannibals,  with  pictures  of  wild 
beasts  tattooed  upon  our  flesh,  dancing  around 
some  dried  snake  fetich. 

Let  us  thank  every  good  and  noble  man  who 
stood  so  grandly,  so  proudly,  in  spite  of  opposition, 
of  hatred  and  death,  for  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
truth. 

Heroism  did  not  excite  the  respect  of  our 
fathers.  The  man  who  would  not  recant  was  not 
forgiven.  They  screwed  the  thumbscrews  down  to 
the  last  pang,  and  then  threw  their  victim  into  some 


336  XHE  LIBERTY  OF 

dungeon,  where,  in  the  throbbing  silence  and  dark- 
ness, he  might  suffer  the  agonies  of  the  fabled 
damned.  This  was  done  in  the  name  of  love  —  in 
the  name  of  mercy — in  the  name  of  the  compas- 
sionate Christ. 

I  saw,  too,  what  they  called  the  Collar  of 
Torture.  Imagine  a  circle  of  iron,  and  on  the 
inside  a  hundred  points  almost  as  sharp  as  needles. 
This  argument  was  fastened  about  the  throat  of 
the  sufferer.  Then  he  could  not  walk,  nor  sit 
down,  nor  stir  without  the  neck  being  punctured  by 
these  points.  In  a  little  while  the  throat  would 
begin  to  swell,  and  suffocation  would  end  the 
agonies  of  that  man.  This  man,  it  may  be,  had 
committed  the  crime  of  saying,  with  tears  upon  his 
cheeks,  "I  do  not  believe  that  God,  the  father  of 
us  all,  will  damn  to  eternal  perdition  any  of  the 
children  of  men." 

I  saw  another  instrument,  called  the  Scaven- 
ger's Daughter.  Think  of  a  pair  of  shears  with 
handles,  not  only  where  they  now  are,  but  at  the 
points  as  well,  and  just  above  the  pivot  that  unites 
the  blades,  a  circle  of  iron.  In  the  upper  handles 
the  hands  would  be  placed ;  in  the  lower,  the  feet ; 
and  through  the  iron  ring,  at  the  centre,  the  head 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  337 

of  the  victim  would  be  forced.  In  this  condition, 
he  would  be  thrown  prone  upon  the  earth,  and  the 
strain  upon  the  muscles  produced  such  agony  that 
insanity  would  in  pity  end  his  pain. 

This  was  done  by  gentlemen  who  said:  "Who- 
soever smiteth  thee  upon  one  cheek  turn  to  him  the 
other  also." 

I  saw  the  Rack.  This  was  a  box  like  the  bed  of 
a  wagon,  with  a  windlass  at  each  end,  with  levers, 
and  ratchets  to  prevent  slipping ;  over  each  wind- 
lass went  chains ;  some  were  fastened  to  the  ankles 
of  the  sufferer;  others  to  his  wrists.  And  then 
priests,  clergymen,  divines,  saints,  began  turning 
these  windlasses,  and  kept  turning,  until  the  ankles, 
the  knees,  the  hips,  the  shoulders,  the  elbows,  the 
wrists  of  the  victim  were  all  dislocated,  and  the 
sufferer  was  wet  with  the  sweat  of  agony.  And 
they  had  standing  by  a  physician  to  feel  his  pulse. 
What  for?  To  save  his  life?  Yes.  In  mercy? 
No ;    simply  that  they  might  rack  him  once  again. 

This  was  done,  remember,  in  the  name  of  civil- 
ization ;  in  the  name  of  law  and  order ;  in  the  name 
of  mercy ;  in  the  name  of  religion  ;  in  the  name 
of  the  most  merciful  Christ. 

Sometimes,  when  I  read  and  think  about  these 


338  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

frightful  things,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  suffered 
all  these  horrors  myself  It  seems  sometimes,  as 
though  I  had  stood  upon  the  shore  of  exile  and 
gazed  with  tearful  eyes  toward  home  and  native 
land ;  as  though  my  nails  had  been  torn  from  my 
hands,  and  into  the  bleeding  quick  needles  had 
been  thrust ;  as  though  my  feet  had  been  crushed 
in  iron  boots ;  as  though  I  had  been  chained  in  the 
cell  of  the  Inquisition  and  listened  with  dying  ears 
for  the  coming  footsteps  of  release ;  as  though  I 
had  stood  upon  the  scaffold  and  had  seen  the 
glittering  axe  fall  upon  me ;  as  though  I  had  been 
upon  the  rack  and  had  seen,  bending  above  me, 
the  white  faces  of  hypocrite  priests ;  as  though  I 
had  been  taken  from  my  fireside,  from  my  wife  and 
children,  taken  to  the  public  square,  chained  ;  as 
though  fagots  had  been  piled  about  me ;  as  though 
the  flames  had  climbed  around  my  limbs  and 
scorched  my  eyes  to  blindness,  and  as  though  my 
ashes  had  been  scattered  to  the  four  winds,  by  all 
the  countless  hands  of  hate.  And  when  I  so  feel, 
I  swear  that  while  I  live  I  will  do  what  little  I 
can  to  preserve  and  to  augment  the  liberties  of 
jnan,  woman,  and  child. 

It  is  a  question  of  justice,  of  mercy,  of  honesty, 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  339 

of  intellectual  development.  If  there  is  a  man  in 
the  world  who  is  not  willing  to  give  to  every  human- 
being  every  right  he  claims  for  himself,  he  is  just  so 
much  nearer  a  barbarian  than  I  am.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion of  honesty.  The  man  who  is  not  willing  to 
give  to  every  other  the  same  intellectual  rights  he 
claims  for  himself,  is  dishonest,  selfish,  and  brutal. 

It  is  a  question  of  intellectual  development. 
Whoever  holds  another  man  responsible  for  his 
honest  thought,  has  a  deformed  and  distorted  brain. 
It  is  a  question  of  intellectual  development. 

A  little  while  ago  I  saw  models  of  nearly  every- 
thing that  man  has  made.  I  saw  models  of  all  the 
water  craft,  from  the  rude  dug-out  in  which  floated 
a  naked  savage — one  of  our  ancestors — a  naked 
savage,  with  teeth  two  inches  in  length,  with  a 
spoonful  of  brains  in  the  back  of  his  head  —  I  saw 
models  of  all  the  water  craft  of  the  world,  from  that 
dug-out  up  to  a  man-of-war,  that  carries  a  hundred 
guns  and  miles  of  canvas — from  that  dug-out  to 
the  steamship  that  turns  its  brave  prow  from  the 
port  of  New  York,  with  a  compass  like  a  con- 
science, crossing  three  thousand  miles  of  billows 
without  missing  a  throb  or  beat  of  its  mighty  iron 
heart. 


340  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

I  saw  at  the  same  time  the  weapons  that  man 
has  made,  from  a  club,  such  as  was  grasped  by 
that  same  savage,  when  he  crawled  from  his  den  in 
the  ground  and  hunted  a  snake  for  his  dinner; 
from  that  club  to  the  boomerang,  to  the  sword,  to 
the  cross-bow,  to  the  blunderbuss,  to  the  flint-lock, 
to  the  cap-lock,  to  the  needle-gun,  up  to  a  cannon 
cast  by  Krupp,  capable  of  hurling  a  ball  weighing 
two  thousand  pounds  through  eighteen  inches  of 
solid  steel. 

I  saw,  too,  the  armor  from  the  shell  of  a  turtle, 
that  one  of  our  brave  ancestors  lashed  upon  his 
breast  when  he  went  to  fight  for  his  country;  the 
skin  of  a  porcupine,  dried  with  the  quills  on,  which 
this  same  savage  pulled  over  his  orthodox  head, 
up  to  the  shirts  of  mail,  that  were  worn  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  that  laughed  at  the  edge  of  the 
sword  and  defied  the  point  of  the  spear;  up  to  a 
monitor  clad  in  complete  steel. 

I  saw  at  the  same  time,  their  musical  instru- 
ments, from  the  tom-tom  —  that  is,  a  hoop  with  a 
couple  of  strings  of  raw  hide  drawn  across  it — 
from  that  tom-tom,  up  to  the  instruments  we 
have  to-day,  that  make  the  common  air  blossom 
with  melody. 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  34^ 

I  saw,  too,  their  paintings,  from  a  daub  of 
yellow  mud,  to  the  great  works  which  now  adorn 
the  galleries  of  the  world.  I  saw  also  their  sculp- 
ture, from  the  rude  god  with  four  legs,  a  half  dozen 
arms,  several  noses,  and  two  or  three  rows  of  ears, 
and  one  little,  contemptible,  brainless  head,  up  to 
the  figures  of  to-day  —  to  the  marbles  that  genius 
has  clad  in  such  a  personality  that  it  seems  almost 
impudent  to  touch  them  without  an  introduction. 

I  saw  their  books — books  written  upon  skins  of 
wild  beasts  —  upon  shoulder-blades  of  sheep  — 
books  written  upon  leaves,  upon  bark,  up  to  the 
splendid  volumes  that  enrich  the  libraries  of  our 
day.  When  I  speak  of  libraries,  I  think  of  the 
remark  of  Plato:  "A  house  that  has  a  library  in 
it   has  a  soul." 

I  saw  their  implements  of  agriculture,  from  a 
crooked  stick  that  was  attached  to  the  horn  of  an 
ox  by  some  twisted  straw,  to  the  agricultural  imple- 
ments of  this  generation,  that  make  it  possible 
for  a  man  to  cultivate  the  soil  without  being  an 
ignoramus. 

While  looking  upon  these  things  I  was  forced  to 
say  that  man  advanced  only  as  he  mingled  his 
thought  with  his  labor, — only  as  he  got  into  part- 


342  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

nership  with  the  forces  of  nature, — only  as  he 
learned  to  take  advantage  of  his  surroundings  — 
only  as  he  freed  himself  from  the  bondage  of  fear, 
— only  as  he  depended  upon  himself— only  as  he 
lost  confidence  in  the  gods. 

I  saw  at  the  same  time  a  row  of  human  skulls, 
from  the  lowest  skull  that  has  been  found,  the 
Neanderthal  skull  —  skulls  from  Central  Africa, 
skulls  from  the  Bushmen  of  Australia — skulls  from 
the  farthest  isles  of  the  Pacific  sea — up  to  the  best 
skulls  of  the  last  generation; — and  I  noticed  that 
there  was  the  same  difference  between  those  skulls 
that  there  was  between  the  products  of  those  skulls, 
and  I  said  to  myself,  "After  all,  it  is  a  simple  ques- 
tion of  intellectual  development."  There  was  the 
same  difference  between  those  skulls,  the  lowest 
and  highest  skulls,  that  there  was  between  the  dug- 
out and  the  man-of-war  and  the  steamship,  between 
the  club  and  the  Krupp  gun,  between  the  yellow 
daub  and  the  landscape,  between  the  tom-tom  and 
an  opera  by  Verdi. 

The  first  and  lowest  skull  in  this  row  was  the 
den  in  which  crawled  the  base  and  meaner  instincts 
of  mankind,  and  the  last  was  a  temple  in  which 
dwelt  joy,  liberty,  and  love. 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  343 

It  is  all  a  question  of  brain,  of  intellectual  de- 
velopment. 

If  we  are  nearer  free  than  were  our  fathers,  it 
is  because  we  have  better  heads  upon  the  average, 
and  more  brains  in  them. 

Now,  I  ask  you  to  be  honest  with  me.  It  makes 
no  difference  to  you  what  I  believe,  nor  what  I  wish 
to  prove.  I  simply  ask  you  to  be  honest.  Divest 
your  minds,  for  a  moment  at  least,  of  all  religious 
prejudice.  Act,  for  a  few  moments,  as  though  you 
were  men  and  women. 

Suppose  the  king,  if  there  was  one,  and  the 
priest,  if  there  was  one,  at  the  time  this  gentleman 
floated  in  the  dug-out,  and  charmed  his  ears  with 
the  music  of  the  tom-tom,  had  said:  "That  dug-out 
is  the  best  boat  that  ever  can  be  built  by  man ;  the 
pattern  of  that  came  from  on  high,  from  the  great 
god  of  storm  and  flood,  and  any  man  who  says  that 
he  can  improve  it  by  putting  a  mast  in  it,  with  a  sail 
upon  it,  is  an  infidel,  and  shall  be  burned  at  the 
stake;"  what,  in  your  judgment — honor  bright — 
would  have  been  the  effect  upon  the  circumnaviga- 
tion of  the  globe? 

Suppose  the  king,  if  there  was  one,  and  the 
priest,  if  there  was  one  —  and  I  presume  there  was 


344  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

a  priest,  because  it  was  a  very  ignorant  age — sup- 
pose this  king  and  priest  had  said:  "That  tom-tom 
is  the  most  beautiful  instrument  of  music  of  which 
any  man  can  conceive;  that  is  the  kind  of  music 
they  have  in  heaven;  an  angel  sitting  upon  the 
edge  of  a  fleecy  cloud,  golden  in  the  setting  sun, 
playing  upon  that  tom-tom,  became  so  enraptured, 
so  entranced  with  her  own  music,  that  in  a  kind  of 
ecstasy  she  dropped  it — that  is  how  we  obtained  it ; 
and  any  man  who  says  that  it  can  be  improved  by 
putting  a  back  and  front  to  it,  and  four  strings,  and 
a  bridge,  and  getting  a  bow  of  hair  with  rosin,  is  a 
blaspheming  wretch,  and  shall  die  the  death," — I 
ask  you,  what  effect  would  that  have  had  upon 
music?  If  that  course  had  been  pursued,  would 
the  human  ears,  in  your  judgment,  ever  have  been 
enriched  with  the  divine  symphonies  of  Beethoven  ? 
Suppose  the  king,  if  there  was  one,  and  the 
priest,  had  said:  "That  crooked  stick  is  the  best 
plow  that  can  be  invented :  the  pattern  of  that  plow 
was  given  to  a  pious  farmer  in  a  holy  dream,  and 
that  twisted  straw  is  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  all  twisted 
things,  and  any  man  who  says  he  can  make  an  im- 
provement upon  that  plow,  is  an  atheist;"  what,  in 
your  judgment,  would  have  been  the  effect  upon 
the  science  of  agriculture  ? 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  345 

But  the  people  said,  and  the  king  and  priest 
said:  "We  want  better  weapons  with  which  to  kill 
our  fellow- Christians  ;  we  want  better  plows,  better 
music,  better  paintings,  and  whoever  will  give  us 
better  weapons,  and  better  music,  better  houses  to 
live  in,  better  clothes,  we  will  robe  him  in  wealth, 
and  crown  him  with  honor."  Every  incentive  was 
held  out  to  every  human  being  to  improve  these 
things.  That  is  the  reason  the  club  has  been 
changed  to  a  cannon,  the  dug-out  to  a  steamship, 
the  daub  to  a  painting:  that  is  the  reason  that  the 
piece  of  rough  and  broken  stone  finally  became  a 
glorified  statue. 

You  must  not,  however,  forget  that  tne  gen- 
tleman in  the  dug-out,  the  gentleman  who  was 
enraptured  with  the  music  of  the  tom-tom,  and 
cultivated  his  land  with  a  crooked  stick,  had  a 
religion  of  his  own.  That  gentlemen  in  the  dug- 
out was  orthodox.  He  was  never  troubled  with 
doubts.  He  lived  and  died  settled  in  his  mind. 
He  believed  in  hell ;  and  he  thought  he  would  be 
far  happier  in  heaven,  if  he  could  just  lean  over  and 
see  certain  people  who  expressed  doubts  as  to  the 
truth  of  his  creed,  gently  but  everlastingly  broiled 
and  burned. 


346  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

It  is  a  very  sad  and  unhappy  fact  that  this  man 
has  had  a  great  many  intellectual  descendants.  It 
is  also  an  unhappy  fact  in  nature,  that  the  ignorant 
multiply  much  faster  than  the  intellectual.  This 
fellow  in  the  dug-out  believed  in  a  personal  devil. 
His  devil  had  a  cloven  hoof,  a  long  tail,  armed  with 
a  fiery  dart ;  and  his  devil  breathed  brimstone. 
This  devil  was  at  least  the  equal  of  God ;  not  quite 
so  stout  but  a  little  shrewder.  And  do  you  know 
there  has  not  been  a  patentable  improvement  made 
upon  that  devil  for  six  thousand  years. 

This  gentleman  in  the  dug-out  believed  that  God 
was  a  tyrant;  that  he  would  eternally  damn  the 
man  who  lived  in  accordance  with  his  highest  and 
grandest  ideal.  He  believed  that  the  earth  was 
flat.  He  believed  in  a  literal,  burning,  seething 
hell  of  fire  and  sulphur.  He  had  also  his  idea  of 
politics;  and  his  doctrine  was,  might  makes  right. 
And  it  will  take  thousands  of  years  before  the 
world  will  reverse  this  doctrine,  and  believingly  say, 
"Right  makes  might." 

All  I  ask  is  the  same  privilege  to  improve  upon 
that  gentleman's  theology  as  upon  his  musical  in- 
strument; the  same  right  to  improve  upon  his 
politics  as  upon  his  dug-out.     That  is  all.     I  ask 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  347 

for  the  human  soul  the  same  liberty  in  every  direc- 
tion. That  is  the  only  crime  I  have  committed.  I 
say,  let  us  think.  Let  each  one  express  his 
thought.  Let  us  become  investigators,  not  follow- 
ers, not  cringers  and  crawlers.  If  there  is  in 
heaven  an  infinite  being,  he  never  will  be  satisfied 
with  the  worship  of  cowards  and  hypocrites.  Hon- 
est unbelief,  honest  infidelity,  honest  atheism,  will 
be  a  perfume  in  heaven  when  pious  hypocrisy,  no 
matter  how  religious  it  may  be  outwardly,  will  be  a 
stench. 

This  is  my  doctrine :  Give  every  other  human 
being  every  right  you  claim  for  yourself  Keep 
your  mind  open  to  the  influences  of  nature.  Re- 
ceive new  thoughts  with  hospitality.  Let  us 
advance. 

The  religionist  of  to-day  wants  the  ship  of  his 
soul  to  lie  at  the  wharf  of  orthodoxy  and  rot  in  the 
sun.  He  delights  to  hear  the  sails  of  old  opinions 
flap  against  the  masts  of  old  creeds.  He  loves  to 
see  the  joints  and  the  sides  open  and  gape  in  the 
sun,  and  it  is  a  kind  of  bliss  for  him  to  repeat  again 
and  again:  "Do  not  disturb  my  opinions.  Do  not 
unsettle  my  mind;  I  have  it  all  made  up,  and  I 
want  no  infidelity.  Let  me  go  backward  rather 
th^n  forward." 


348  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

As  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  wish  to  be  out  on  the 
high  seas.  I  wish  to  take  my  chances  with  wind, 
and  wave,  and  star.  And  I  had  rather  go  down  in 
the  glory  and  grandeur  of  the  storm,  than  to  rot  in 
any  orthodox  harbor  whatever. 

After  all,  we  are  improving  from  age  to  age. 
The  most  orthodox  people  in  this  country  two 
hundred  years  ago  would  have  been  burned  for  the 
crime  of  heresy.  The  ministers  who  denounce  me 
for  expressing  my  thought  would  have  been  in  the 
Inquisition  themselves.  Where  once  burned  and 
blazed  the  bivouac  fires  of  the  army  of  progress, 
now  glow  the  altars  of  the  church.  The  religion- 
ists of  our  time  are  occupying  about  the  same 
ground  occupied  by  heretics  and  infidels  of  one 
hundred  years  ago.  The  church  has  advanced  in 
spite,  as  it  were,  of  itself.  It  has  followed  the 
army  of  progress  protesting  and  denouncing,  and 
had  to  keep  within  protesting  and  denouncing  dis- 
tance. If  the  church  had  not  made  great  progress 
I  could  not  express  my  thoughts. 

Man,  however,  has  advanced  just  exactly  in  the 
proportion  with  which  he  has  mingled  his  thought 
with  his  labor.  The  sailor,  without  control  of  the 
wind  and  wave,  knowing  nothing  or  very  little  of 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  349 

the  mysterious  currents  and  pulses  of  the  sea,  is 
superstitious.  So  also  is  the  agriculturist,  whose 
prosperity  depends  upon  something  he  cannot  con- 
trol. But  the  mechanic,  when  a  wheel  refuses  to 
turn,  never  thinks  of  dropping  on  his  knees  and 
asking  the  assistance  of  some  divine  power.  He 
knows  there  is  a  reason.  He  knows  that  some- 
thing is  too  large  or  too  small;  that  there  is 
something  wrong  with  his  machine ;  and  he  goes 
to  work  and  he  makes  it  larger  or  smaller,  here  or 
there,  until  the  wheel  will  turn.  Now,  just  in  pro- 
portion as  man  gets  away  from  being,  as  it  were, 
the  slave  of  his  surroundings,  the  serf  of  the 
elements, — of  the  heat,  the  frost,  the  snow,  and 
the  lightning,  —  just  to  the  extent  that  he  has  got- 
ten control  of  his  own  destiny,  just  to  the  extent 
that  he  has  triumphed  over  the  obstacles  of  nature, 
he  has  advanced  physically  and  intellectually.  As 
man  develops,  he  places  a  greater  value  upon  his 
own  rights.  Liberty  becomes  a  grander  and  diviner 
thing.  As  he  values  his  own  rights,  he  begins  to 
value  the  rights  of  others.  And  when  all  men 
give  to  all  others  all  the  rights  they  claim  for  them- 
selves, this  world  will  be  civilized. 

A  few  years   ago   the   people   were   afraid   to 


350  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

question  the  king,  afraid  to  question  the  priest, 
afraid  to  investigate  a  creed,  afraid  to  deny  a  book, 
afraid  to  denounce  a  dogma,  afraid  to  reason, 
afraid  to  think.  Before  wealth  they  bowed  to  the 
very  earth,  and  in  the  presence  of  titles  they 
became  abject.  All  this  is  slowly  but  surely 
changing.  We  no  longer  bow  to  men  simply  be- 
cause they  are  rich.  Our  fathers  worshiped  the 
golden  calf.  The  worst  you  can  say  of  an  Amer- 
ican now  is,  he  worships  the  gold  of  the  calf. 
Even  the  calf  is  beginning  to  see  this  distinction. 
It  no  longer  satisfies  the  ambition  of  a  great 
man  to  be  king  or  emperor.  The  last  Napoleon 
was  not  satisfied  with  being  the  emperor  of  the 
French.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  having  a  circlet 
of  gold  about  his  head.  He  wanted  some  evidence 
that  he  had  something  of  value  within  his  head. 
So  he  wrote  the  life  of  Julius  Caesar,  that  he  might 
become  a  member  of  the  French  Academy.  The 
emperors,  the  kings,  the  popes,  no  longer  tower 
above  their  fellows.  Compare  King  William  with 
the  philosopher  Haeckel.  The  king  is  one  of  the 
anointed  by  the  most  high,  as  they  claim — one 
upon  whose  head  has  been  poured  the  divine 
petroleum  of  authority.     Compare  this  king  with 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  351 

Haeckel,  who  towers  an  intellectual  colossus  above 
the  crowned  mediocrity.  Compare  George  Eliot 
with  Queen  Victoria.  The  Queen  is  clothed  in 
garments  given  her  by  blind  fortune  and  unreason- 
ing chance,  while  George  Eliot  wears  robes  of 
glory  woven  in  the  loom  of  her  own  genius. 

The  world  is  beginning  to  pay  homage  to  intel- 
lect, to  genius,  to  heart. 

We  have  advanced.  We  have  reaped  the  ben- 
efit of  every  sublime  and  heroic  self-sacrifice,  of 
every  divine  and  brave  act;  and  we  should  en- 
deavor to  hand  the  torch  to  the  next  generation, 
having  added  a  little  to  the  intensity  and  glory  of 
the  flame. 

When  I  think  of  how  much  this  world  has  suf- 
fered ;  when  I  think  of  how  long  our  fathers  were 
slaves,  of  how  they  cringed  and  crawled  at  the  foot 
of  the  throne,  and  in  the  dust  of  the  altar,  of  how 
they  abased  themselves,  of  how  abjectly  they  stood 
in  the  presence  of  superstition  robed  and  crowned, 
I  am  amazed. 

This  world  has  not  been  fit  for  a  man  to  live  in 
fifty  years.  It  was  not  until  the  year  1808  that 
Great  Britain  abolished  the  slave  trade.  Up  to 
that  time  her  judges,  sitting  upon  the  bench  in  the 


352  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

name  of  justice,  her  priests,  occupying  her  pulpits, 
in  the  name  of  universal  love,  owned  stock  in  the 
slave  ships,  and  luxuriated  upon  the  profits  of 
piracy  and  murder.  It  was  not  until  the  sauie  year 
that  the  United  States  of  America  abolished  the 
slave  trade  between  this  and  other  countries,  but 
carefully  preserved  it  as  between  the  States.  It 
was  not  until  the  28th  day  of  August,  1833,  that 
Great  Britain  abolished  human  slavery  in  her  colo- 
nies; and  it  was  not  until  the  ist  day  of  January, 
1863,  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  sustained  by  the  sub- 
lime and  heroic  North,  rendered  our  flag  pure  as 
the  sky  in  which  it  floats. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was,  in  my  judgment,  in  many 
respects,  the  grandest  man  ever  President  of  the 
United  States.  Upon  his  monument  these  words 
should  be  written:  "Here  sleeps  the  only  man  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  who,  having  been  clothed 
with  almost  absolute  power,  never  abused  it,  except 
upon  the  side  of  mercy." 

Think  how  long  we  clung  to  the  institution  of 
human  slavery,  how  long  lashes  upon  the  naked 
back  were  a  legal  tender  for  labor  performed. 
Think  of  it.  The  pulpit  of  this  country  deliber- 
ately and  willingly,  for  a  hundred  years,  turned  the 
cross  of  Christ  into  a  whipping  post. 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  353 

With  every  drop  of  my  blood  I  hate  and 
execrate  every  form  of  tyranny,  every  form  of 
slavery.     I  hate  dictation.     I  love  liberty. 

What  do  I  mean  by  liberty?  By  physical  liberty 
I  mean  the  right  to  do  anything  which  does  not 
interfere  with  the  happiness  of  another.  By  intel- 
lectual liberty  I  mean  the  right  to  think  right  and 
the  right  to  think  wrong.  Thought  is  the  means 
by  which  we  endeavor  to  arrive  at  truth.  If  we 
know  the  truth  already,  we  need  not  think.  All 
that  can  be  required  is  honesty  of  purpose.  You 
ask  my  opinion  about  anything;  I  examine  it 
honestly,  and  when  my  mind  is  made  up,  what 
should  I  tell  you?  Should  I  tell  you  my  real 
thought?  What  should  I  do?  There  is  a  book 
put  in  my  hands.  I  am  told  this  is  the  Koran ;  it 
was  written  by  inspiration.  I  read  it,  and  when  I 
get  through,  suppose  that  I  think  in  my  heart  and 
in  my  brain,  that  it  is  utterly  untrue,  and  you  then 
ask  me,  what  do  you  think?  Now,  admitting  that 
I  live  in  Turkey,  and  have  no  chance  to  get  any 
office  unless  I  am  on  the  side  of  the  Koran, 
what  should  I  say?  Should  I  make  a  clean  breast 
and  say,  that  upon  my  honor  I  do  not  believe 
it?     What   would   you    think   then    of  my  fellow- 


354  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

citizens  if  they  said:  "That  man  is  dangerous,  he 
is  dishonest." 

Suppose  I  read  the  book  called  the  Bible,  and 
when  I  get  through  I  make  up  my  mind  that  it  was 
written  by  men,  A  minister  asks  me,  "  Did  you 
read  the  Bible  ?  "  I  answer,  that  I  did.  *'  Do  you 
think  it  divinely  inspired  ?  "  What  should  I  reply  ? 
Should  I  say  to  myself,  "  If  I  deny  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures,  the  people  will  never  clothe  me 
with  power."  What  ought  I  to  answer?  Ought  I 
not  to  say  like  a  man:  "I  have  read  it;  I  do  not 
believe  it."  Should  I  not  give  the  real  transcript 
of  my  mind  ?  Or  should  I  turn  hypocrite  and  pre- 
tend what  I  do  not  feel,  and  hate  myself  forever 
after  for  being  a  cringing  coward.  For  my  part  I 
would  rather  a  man  would  tell  me  what  he  honestly 
thinks.  I  would  rather  he  would  preserve  his  man- 
hood. I  had  a  thousand  times  rather  be  a  manly 
unbeliever  than  an  unmanly  believer.  And  if  there 
is  a  judgment  day,  a  time  when  all  will  stand  before 
some  supreme  being,  I  believe  I  will  stand  higher, 
and  stand  a  better  chance  of  getting  my  case  de- 
cided in  my  favor,  than  any  man  sneaking  througk 
life  pretending  to  believe  what  he  does  not. 

I   have   made   up  my  mind  to  say  my  say.     I 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  355 

shall  do  it  kindly,  distinctly ;  but  I  am  going  to  do 
it.  I  know  there  are  thousands  of  men  who  sub- 
stantially agree  with  me,  but  who  are  not  in  a  con- 
dition to  express  their  thoughts.  They  are  poor; 
they  are  in  business ;  and  they  know  that  should 
they  tell  their  honest  thought,  persons  will  refuse 
to  patronize  them — to  trade  with  them  ;  they  wish 
to  get  bread  for  their  little  children ;  they  wish  to 
take  care  of  their  wives ;  they  wish  to  have  homes 
and  the  comforts  of  life.  Every  such  person  is  a 
certificate  of  the  meanness  of  the  community  in 
which  he  resides.  And  yet  I  do  not  blame  these 
people  for  not  expressing  their  thought.  I  say  to 
them:  "Keep  your  ideas  to  yourselves;  feed  and 
clothe  the  ones  you  love ;  I  will  do  your  talking  for 
you.  The  church  can  not  touch,  can  not  crush, 
can  not  starve,  cannot  stop  or  stay  me ;  I  will  ex- 
press your  thoughts." 

As  an  excuse  for  tyranny,  as  a  justification  of 
slavery,  the  church  has  taught  that  man  is  totally 
depraved.  Of  the  truth  of  that  doctrine,  the 
church  has  furnished  the  only  evidence  there  is. 
The  truth  is,  we  are  both  good  and  bad.  The 
worst  are  capable  of  some  good  deeds,  and  the 


356  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

best  are  capable  of  bad.  The  lowest  can  rise,  and 
the  highest  may  fall.  That  mankind  can  be  divided 
into  two  g-reat  classes,  sinners  and  saints,  is  an 
utter  falsehood.  In  times  of  great  disaster,  called 
it  may  be,  by  the  despairing  voices  of  women,  men, 
denounced  by  the  church  as  totally  depraved,  rush 
to  death  as  to  a  festival.  By  such  men,  deeds 
are  done  so  filled  with  self-sacrifice  and  generous 
daring,  that  millions  pay  to  them  the  tribute,  not 
only  of  admiration,  but  of  tears.  Above  all  creeds, 
above  all  religions,  after  all,  is  that  divine  thing, — 
Humanity ;  and  now  and  then  in  shipwreck  on  the 
wide,  wild  sea,  or  'mid  the  rocks  and  breakers  of 
some  :ruel  shore,  or  where  the  serpents  of  flame 
writhe  and  hiss,  some  glorious  heart,  some  chivalric 
soul  does  a  deed  that  glitters  like  a  star,  and  gives 
the  \\K  to  all  the  dogmas  of  superstition.  All  these 
frightful  doctrines  have  been  used  to  degrade  and 
to  enslave  mankind. 

Away,  forever  away  with  the  creeds  and  books 
and  forms  and  laws  and  religions  that  take  from 
the  soul  liberty  and  reason.  Down  with  the  idea 
that  thought  is  dangerous !  Perish  the  infamous 
doctrine  that  man  can  have  property  in  man.  Let 
us  resent  with  indignation  every  effort   to  put  a 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  357 

chain  upon  our  minds.  If  there  is  no  God,  cer- 
tainly we  should  not  bow  and  cringe  and  crawl.  If 
there  is  a  God,  there  should  be  no  slaves. 

LIBERTY  OF  WOMAN. 

Women  have  been  the  slaves  of  slaves ;  and  in 
my  judgment  it  took  millions  of  ages  for  woman  to 
come  from  the  condition  of  abject  slavery  up  to  the 
institution  of  marriage.  Let  me  say  right  here,  that 
I  regard  marriage  as  the  holiest  institution  among 
men.  Without  the  fireside  there  is  no  human  ad- 
vancement ;  without  the  family  relation  there  is  no 
life  worth  living.  Every  good  government  is  made 
up  of  good  families.  The  unit  of  good  government 
is  the  family,  and  anything  that  tends  to  destroy 
the  family  is  perfectly  devilish  and  infamous.  I  be- 
lieve in  marriage,  and  I  hold  in  utter  contempt  the 
opinions  of  those  long-haired  men  and  short-haired 
women  who  denounce  the  institution  of  marriage. 

The  grandest  ambition  that  any  man  can  possi- 
bly have,  is  to  so  live,  and  so  improve  himself  in 
heart  and  brain,  as  to  be  worthy  of  the  love  of  some 
splendid  woman ;  and  the  grandest  ambition  of  any 
girl  is  to  make  herself  worthy  of  the  love  and  ado- 


358  THE  LIBER  TY  OF 

ration  of  some  magnificent  man.  That  is  my  idea. 
There  is  no  success  in  life  without  love  and  mar- 
riage. You  had  better  be  the  emperor  of  one  lov- 
ing and  tender  heart,  and  she  the  empress  of  yours, 
than  to  be  king  of  the  world.  The  man  who  has 
really  won  the  love  of  one  good  woman  in  this 
world,  I  do  not  care  if  he  dies  in  the  ditch  a  beg- 
gar, his  life  has  been  a  success. 

I  say  it  took  millions  of  years  to  come  from  the 
condition  of  abject  slavery  up  to  the  condition  of 
marriage.  Ladies,  the  ornaments  you  wear  upon 
your  persons  to-night  are  but  the  souvenirs  of  your 
mother's  bondage.  The  chains  around  your  necks, 
and  the  bracelets  clasped  upon  your  white  arms  by 
the  thrilled  hand  of  love,  have  been  changed  by 
the  wand  of  civilization  from  iron  to  shining,  glit- 
tering gold. 

But  nearly  every  religion  has  accounted  for  all 
the  devilment  in  this  world  by  the  crime  of  woman. 
What  a  gallant  thing  that  is !  And  if  it  is  true,  I 
had  rather  live  with  the  woman  I  love  in  a  world 
full  of  trouble,  than  to  live  in  heaven  with  nobody 
but  men. 

I  read  in  a  book — and  I  will  say  now  that  I 
cannot  give  the  exact  language,  as  my  memory  does 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  359 

not  retain  the  words,  but  I  can  give  the  substance 
—  I  read  in  a  book  that  the  Supreme  Being  con- 
cluded to  make  a  world  and  one  man ;  that  he  took 
some  nothing  and  made  a  world  and  one  man,  and 
put  this  man  in  a  garden.  In  a  little  while  he 
noticed  that  the  man  got  lonesome ;  that  he  wan- 
dered around  as  if  he  was  waiting  for  a  train. 
There  was  nothing  to  interest  him;  no  news;  no 
papers ;  no  politics ;  no  policy ;  and,  as  the  devil 
had  not  yet  made  his  appearance,  there  was  no 
chance  for  reconciliation ;  not  even  for  civil  service 
reform.  Well,  he  wandered  about  the  garden  in 
this  condition,  until  finally  the  Supreme  Being  made 
up  his  mind  to  make  him  a  companion. 

Having  used  up  all  the  nothing  he  originally 
took  in  making  the  world  and  one  man,  he  had  to 
take  a  part  of  the  man  to  start  a  woman  with.  So 
he  caused  a  sleep  to  fall  on  this  man  —  now  under- 
stand me,  I  do  not  say  this  story  is  true.  After 
the  sleep  fell  upon  this  man,  the  Supreme  Being 
took  a  rib,  or  as  the  French  would  call  it,  a  cutlet, 
out  of  this  man,  and  from  that  he  made  a  woman. 
And  considering  the  amount  of  raw  material  used, 
I  look  upon  it  as  the  most  successful  job  ever  per- 
formed.    Well,  after  he  got  the  woman  done,  she 


36o  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

was  brought  to  the  man  ;  not  to  see  how  she  liked 
him,  but  to  see  how  he  Hked  her.  He  liked  her, 
and  they  started  housekeeping ;  and  they  were  told 
of  certain  things  they  might  do  and  of  one  thing 
they  could  not  do  —  and  of  course  they  did  it.  I 
would  have  done  it  in  fifteen  minutes,  and  I  know 
it.  There  wouldn't  have  been  an  apple  on  that 
tree  half  an  hour  from  date,  and  the  limbs  would 
have  been  full  of  clubs.  And  then  they  were 
turned  out  of  the  park  and  extra  policemen  were 
put  on  to  keep  them  from  getting  back. 

Devilment  commenced.  The  mumps,  and  the 
measles,  and  the  whooping-cough,  and  the  scarlet 
fever  started  in  their  race  for  man.  They  began  to 
have  the  toothache,  roses  began  to  have  thorns, 
snakes  began  to  have  poisoned  teeth,  and  people 
began  to  divide  about  religion  and  politics,  and  the 
world  has  been  full  of  trouble  from  that  day  to  this. 

Nearly  all  of  the  religions  of  this  world  account 
for  the  existence  of  evil  by  such  a  story  as  that ! 

I  read  in  another  book  what  appeared  to  be  an 
account  of  the  same  transaction.  It  was  written 
about  four  thousand  years  before  the  other.  All 
commentators  agree  that  the  one  that  was  written 
last  was  the  original,  and  that  the  one  that  was 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  361 

written  first  was  copied  from  the  one  that  was 
written  last.  But  I  would  advise  you  all  not  to 
allow  your  creed  to  be  disturbed  by  a  little  matter 
of  tour  or  five  thousand  years.  In  this  other  story, 
Brahma  made  up  his  mind  to  make  the  world  and  a 
man  and  woman.  He  made  the  world,  and  he 
made  the  man  and  then  the  woman,  and  put  them 
on  the  island  of  Ceylon.  According  to  the  account 
it  was  the  most  beautiful  island  of  which  man  can 
conceive.  Such  birds,  such  songs,  such  flowers  and 
such  verdure !  And  the  branches  of  the  trees  were 
so  arranged  that  when  the  wind  swept  through 
them  every  tree  was  a  thousand  y^olian  harps. 

Brahma,  when  he  put  them  there,  said:  "Let 
them  have  a  period  of  courtship,  for  it  is  my  desire 
and  will  that  true  love  should  forever  precede 
marriage."  When  I  read  that,  it  was  so  much 
more  beautiful  and  lofty  than  the  other,  that  I  said 
to  myself,  "  If  either  one  of  these  stories  ever  turns 
out  to  be  true,  I  hope  it  will  be  this  one." 

Then  they  had  their  courtship,  with  the  nightin- 
gale singing,  and  the  stars  shining,  and  the  flov/ers 
blooming,  and  they  fell  in  love.  Imagine  that 
courtship!  No  prospective  fathers  or  mothers-in- 
law  ;  no   prying  and  gossiping  neighbors  ;  nobody 


362  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

to  say,  "Young  man,  how  do  you  expect  to  support 
her?"  Nothing  of  that  kind.  They  were  married 
by  the  Supreme  Brahma,  and  he  said  to  them : 
"Remain  here;  you  must  never  leave  this  island." 
Well,  after  a  little  while  the  man  —  and  his  name 
was  Adami,  and  the  woman's  name  was  Heva — 
said  to  Heva:  "  I  believe  I'll  look  about  a  little." 
He  went  to  the  northern  extremity  of  the  island 
where  there  was  a  little  narrow  neck  of  land  con- 
necting it  with  the  mainland,  and  the  devil,  who  is 
always  playing  pranks  with  us,  produced  a  mirage, 
and  when  he  looked  over  to  the  mainland,  such 
hills  and  vales,  such  dells  and  dales,  such  mountains 
crowned  with  snow,  such  cataracts  clad  in  bows  of 
glory  did  he  see  there,  that  he  went  back  and  told 
Heva:  "The  country  over  there  is  a  thousand 
times  better  than  this;  let  us  migrate."  She,  like 
every  other  woman  that  ever  lived,  said:  "  Let  well 
enough  alone;  we  have  all  we  want;  let  us  stay 
here."  But  he  said  "No,  let  us  go;"  so  she  fol- 
lowed him,  and  when  they  came  to  this  narrow 
neck  of  land,  he  took  her  on  his  back  like  a  gen- 
tleman, and  carried  her  over.  But  the  moment 
they  got  over  they  heard  a  crash,  and  looking  back, 
discovered  that  this  narrow  neck  of  land  had  fallen 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  363 

into  the  sea.  The  mirage  had  disappeared,  and 
there  were  naught  but  rocks  and  sand;  and  then 
the  Supreme  Brahma  cursed  them  both  to  the 
lowest  hell. 

Then  it  was  that  the  man  spoke, —  and  I  have 
liked  him  ever  since  for  it  —  "Curse  me,  but  curse 
not  her,  it  was  not  her  fault,  it  was  mine." 

That's  the  kind  of  man  to  start  a  world  with. 

The  Supreme  Brahma  said:  "I  will  save  her, 
but  not  thee."  And  then  she  spoke  out  of  her 
fullness  of  love,  out  of  a  heart  in  which  there  was 
love  enough  to  make  all  her  daughters  rich  in  holy 
affection,  and  said :  "  If  thou  wilt  not  spare  him, 
spare  neither  me;  I  do  not  wish  to  live  without 
him;  I  love  him."  Then  the  Supreme  Brahma 
said — and  I  have  liked  him  ever  since  I  read  it  — 
"  I  will  spare  you  both  and  watch  over  you  and 
your  children  forever." 

Honor  bright,  is  not  that  the  better  and  grander 
story  ? 

And  from  that  same  book  I  want  to  show  you 
what  ideas  some  of  these  miserable  heathen  had; 
the  heathen  we  are  trying  to  convert.  We  send 
missionaries  over  yonder  to  convert  heathen  there, 
and  we  send   soldiers   out    on   the   plains   to  kill 


364  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

heathen  here.  If  we  can  convert  the  heathen,  why 
not  convert  those  nearest  home  ?  Why  not  convert 
those  we  can  get  at  ?  Why  not  convert  those  who 
have  the  immense  advantage  of  the  example  of 
the  average  pioneer  ?  But  to  show  you  the  men 
we  are  trying  to  convert  :  In  this  book  it  says  : 
•'  Man  is  strength,  woman  is  beauty  ;  man  is  cour- 
age, woman  is  love.  When  the  one  man  loves  the 
one  woman  and  the  one  woman  loves  the  one  man, 
the  very  angels  leave  heaven  and  cori;ie  and  sit  in 
that  house  and  sing  for  joy." 

They  are  the  men  we  are  converting.  Think 
of  it!  I  tell  you,  when  I  read  these  things,  I  say 
that  love  is  not  of  any  country  ;  nobility  does  not 
belong  exclusively  to  any  race,  and  through  all  the 
ages,  there  have  been  a  few  great  and  tender  souls 
blossoming  in  love  and  pity. 

In  my  judgment,  the  woman  is  the  equal  of  the 
man.  She  has  all  the  rights  I  have  and  one  more, 
and  that  is  the  right  to  be  protected.  That  is  my 
doctrine.  You  are  married ;  try  and  make  the 
woman  you  love  happy.  Whoever  marries  simply 
for  himself  will  make  a  mistake  ;  but  whoever  loves 
a  woman  so  well  that  he  says  "  I  will  make  her 
happy,"    makes    no   mistake.      And   so   with   the 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND    CHILD.  365 

woman  who  says,  "  I  will  make  him  happy."  There 
is  only  one  way  to  be  happy,  and  that  is  to  make 
somebody  else  so,  and  you  cannot  be  happy  by 
going-  cross  lots  ;  you  have  got  to  go  the  regular 
turnpike  road. 

If  there  is  any  man  I  detest,  it  is  the  man  who 
thinks  he  is  the  head  of  a  family — the  man  who 
thinks  he  is  "  boss !  "  The  fellow  in  the  dug-out 
used  that  word  "  boss ;  "  that  was  one  of  his  favorite 
expressions. 

Imagine  a  young  man  and  a  young  woman 
courting,  walking  out  in  the  moonlight,  and  the 
nightingale  singing  a  song  of  pain  and  love,  as 
though  the  thorn  touched  her  heart — imagine  them 
stopping  there  in  the  moonlight  and  starlight  and 
song,  and  saying,  "  Now,  here,  let  us  settle  who  is 
'  boss  ! '  "  I  tell  you  it  is  an  infamous  word  and  an 
infamous  feeling — I  abhor  a  man  who  is  "  boss," 
who  is  going  to  govern  in  his  family,  and  when  he 
speaks  orders  all  the  rest  to  be  still  as  some  mighty 
idea  is  about  to  be  launched  from  his  mouth.  Do 
you  know  I  dislike  this  man  unspeakably  ? 

I  hate  above  all  things  a  cross  man.  What 
right  has  he  to  murder  the  sunshine  of  a  day  ? 
What  right  has  he  to  assassinate  the  joy  of  life  } 


366  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

When  you  go  home  you  ought  to  go  like  a  ray  of 
light — so  that  it  will,  even  in  the  night,  burst  out 
of  the  doors  and  windows  and  illuminate  the 
darkness.  Some  men  think  their  mighty  brains 
have  been  in  a  turmoil ;  they  have  been  thinking 
about  who  will  be  alderman  from  the  fifth  ward; 
they  have  been  thinking  about  politics ;  great  and 
mighty  questions  have  been  engaging  their  minds ; 
they  have  bought  calico  at  five  cents  or  six,  and 
want  to  sell  it  for  seven.  Think  of  the  intellectual 
strain  that  must  have  been  upon  that  man,  and 
when  he  gets  home  everybody  else  in  the  house 
must  look  out  for  his  comfort.  A  woman  who  has 
only  taken  care  of  five  or  six  children,  and  one  or 
two  of  them  sick,  has  been  nursing  them  and 
singing  to  them,  and  trying  to  make  one  yard  of 
cloth  do  the  work  of  two,  she,  of  course,  is  fresh 
and  fine  and  ready  to  wait  upon  this  gentleman — 
the  head  of  the  family  —  the  boss! 

Do  you  know  another  thing?  I  despise  a 
stingy  man„  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  a 
man  to  die  worth  fifty  million  of  dollars,  or  ten 
million  of  dollars,  in  a  city  full  of  want,  when  he 
meets  almost  every  day  the  withered  hand  of 
beggary  and  the   white    lips  of  famine.      How  a 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  367 

man  can  withstand  all  that,  and  hold  in  the  clutch 
of  his  greed  twenty  or  thirty  million  of  dollars,  is 
past  my  comprehension.  I  do  not  see  how  he  can 
do  it.  I  should  not  think  he  could  do  it  any  more 
than  he  could  keep  a  pile  of  lumber  on  the  beach, 
where  hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  were 
drowning  in  the  sea. 

Do  you  know  that  I  have  known  men  who 
would  trust  their  wives  with  their  hearts  and  their 
honor  but  not  with  their  pocketbook;  not  with  a 
dollar.  When  I  see  a  man  of  that  kind,  I  always 
think  he  knows  which  of  these  articles  is  the  most 
valuable.  Think  of  making  your  wife  a  beggar! 
Think  of  her  having  to  ask  you  every  day  for  a 
dollar,  or  for  two  dollars  or  fifty  cents!  "What 
did  you  do  with  that  dollar  I  gave  you  last  week?" 
Think  of  having  a  wife  that  is  afraid  of  you! 
What  kind  of  children  do  you  expect  to  have  with 
a  beggar  and  a  coward  for  their  mother?  Oh,  I 
tell  you  if  you  have  but  a  dollar  in  the  world,  and 
you  have  got  to  spend  it,  spend  it  like  a  king; 
spend  it  as  though  it  were  a  dry  leaf  and  you  the 
owner  of  unbounded  forests !  That 's  the  way  to 
spend  it  I  I  had  rather  be  a  beggar  and  spend  my 
last  dollar  like  a  king,  than  be  a  king  and  spend 


368  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

my  money  like  a  beggar !  If  it  has  got  to  go,  let 
it  go ! 

Get  the  best  you  can  for  your  family — try  to 
look  as  well  as  you  can  yourself.  When  you  used 
to  go  courting,  how  elegantly  you  looked!  Ah, 
your  eye  was  bright,  your  step  was  light,  and  you 
looked  like  a  prince.  Do  you  know  that  it  is 
insufferable  egotism  in  you  to  suppose  a  woman  is 
going  to  love  you  always  looking  as  slovenly  as 
you  can !  Think  of  it !  Any  good  woman  on 
earth  will  be  true  to  you  forever  when  you  do  your 
level  best. 

Some  people  tell  me,  **  Your  doctrine  about 
loving,  and  wives,  and  all  that,  is  splendid  for  the 
rich,  but  it  won't  do  for  the  poor."  I  tell  you 
to-night  there  is  more  love  in  the  homes  of  the 
poor  than  in  the  palaces  of  the  rich.  The  meanest 
hut  with  love  in  it  is  a  palace  fit  for  the  gods,  and 
a  palace  without  love  is  a  den  only  fit  for  wild 
beasts.  That  is  my  doctrine !  You  cannot  be  so 
poor  that  you  cannot  help  somebody.  Good 
nature  is  the  cheapest  commodity  in  the  world  ; 
and  love  is  the  only  thing  that  will  pay  ten  per 
cent,  to  borrower  and  lender  both.  Do  not  tell  me 
that  you  have  got  to  be  rich !     We  have  a  false 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  3^9 

standard  of  greatness  in  the  United  States.  We 
think  here  that  a  man  must  be  great,  that  he  must 
be  notorious;  that  he  must  be  extremely  wealthy, 
or  that  his  name  must  be  upon  the  putrid  lips 
of  rumor.  It  is  all  a  mistake.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  be  rich  or  to  be  great,  or  to  be  powerful,  to  be 
happy.     The  happy  man  is  the  successful  man. 

Happiness  is  the  legal  tender  of  the  soul. 

Joy  is  wealth. 

A  little  while  ago,  I  stood  by  the  grave  of  the 
old  Napoleon  —  a  magnificent  tomb  of  gilt  and 
gold,  fit  almost  for  a  dead  deity  —  and  gazed  upon 
the  sarcophagus  of  rare  and  nameless  marble,  where 
rest  at  last  the  ashes  of  that  restless  man.  I 
leaned  over  the  balustrade  and  thought  about  the 
career  of  the  greatest  soldier  of  the  modern  world. 

I  saw  him  walking  upon  the  banks  of  the  Seine, 
contemplating  suicide.  I  saw  him  at  Toulon — I 
saw  him  putting  down  the  mob  in  the  streets  of 
Paris — I  saw  him  at  the  head  of  the  army  of  Italy 
— I  saw  him  crossing  the  bridge  of  Lodi  with 
the  tri-color  in  his  hand — I  saw  him  in  Egypt  in 
the  shadows  of  the  pyramids — I  saw  him  conquer 
the  Alps  and  mingle  the  eagles  of  France  with  the 
eagles  of  the  crags.     I  saw  him  at  Marengo — at 


370  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

Ulm  and  Austerlitz.  I  saw  him  in  Russia,  where 
the  infantry  of  the  snow  and  the  cavalry  of  the  wild 
blast  scattered  his  legions  like  winter's  withered 
leaves.  I  saw  him  at  Leipsic  in  defeat  and  disaster 
— driven  by  a  million  bayonets  back  upon  Paris — 
clutched  like  a  wild  beast — banished  to  Elba.  I 
saw  him  escape  and  retake  an  empire  by  the  force 
of  his  genius.  I  saw  him  upon  the  frightful  field  of 
Waterloo,  where  Chance  and  Fate  combined  to 
wreck  the  fortunes  of  their  former  king.  And  I 
saw  him  at  St.  Helena,  with  his  hands  crossed 
behind  him,  gazing  out  upon  the  sad  and  solemn 
sea. 

I  thought  of  the  orphans  and  widows  he  had 
made — of  the  tears  that  had  been  shed  for  his 
glory,  and  of  the  only  woman  who  ever  loved  him, 
pushed  from  his  heart  by  the  cold  hand  of 
ambition.  And  I  said  I  would  rather  have  been  a 
French  peasant  and  worn  wooden  shoes.  I  would 
rather  have  lived  in  a  hut  with  a  vine  growing  over 
the  door,  and  the  grapes  growing  purple  in  the 
kisses  of  the  autumn  sun.  I  would  rather  have 
been  that  poor  peasant  with  my  loving  wife  by  my 
side,  knitting  as  the  day  died  out  of  the  sky  —  with 
my  children  upon  my  knees  and  their  arms  about 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  371 

me  —  I  would  rather  have  been  that  man  and  gone 
down  to  the  tongueless  silence  of  the  dreamless 
dust,  than  to  have  been  that  imperial  impersonation 
offeree  and  murder,  known  as  "Napoleon  the  Great." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  be  great  to  be  happy ;  it 
is  not  necessary  to  be  rich  to  be  just  and  generous 
and  to  have  a  heart  filled  with  divine  affection. 
No  matter  whether  you  are  rich  or  poor,  treat  your 
wife  as  though  she  were  a  splendid  flower,  and  she 
will  fill  your  life  with  perfume  and  with  joy. 

And  do  you  know,  it  is  a  splendid  thing  to 
think  that  the  woman  you  really  love  will  never 
grow  old  to  you.  Through  the  wrinkles  of  time, 
through  the  mask  of  years,  if  you  really  love  her, 
you  will  always  see  the  face  you  loved  and  won. 
And  a  woman  who  really  loves  a  man  does  not  see 
that  he  grows  old;  he  is  not  decrepit  to  her;  he 
does  not  tremble;  he  is  not  old;  she  always  sees 
the  same  gallant  gentleman  who  won  her  hand  and 
heart.  I  like  to  think  of  it  in  that  way ;  I  like  to 
think  that  love  is  eternal.  And  to  love  in  that  way 
and  then  go  down  the  hill  of  life  together,  and  as 
you  go  down,  hear,  perhaps,  the  laughter  of 
grandchildren,  while  the  birds  of  joy  and  love  sing 
once  more  in  the  leafless  branches  of  the  tree 
of  age. 


372  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

I  believe  in  the  fireside.  I  believe  in  the 
democracy  of  home.  I  believe  in  the  republicanism 
of  the  family.  I  believe  in  liberty,  equality  and 
love. 

THE  LIBERTY  OF  CHILDREN. 

If  women  have  been  slaves,  what  shall  I  say  of 
children ;  of  the  little  children  in  alleys  and 
sub-cellars  ;  the  little  children  who  turn  pale  when 
they  hear  their  fathers'  footsteps ;  little  children  who 
run  away  when  they  only  hear  their  names  called 
by  the  lips  of  a  mother;  little  children — the 
children  of  poverty,  the  children  of  crime,  the 
children  of  brutality,  wherever  they  are  —  flotsam 
and  jetsam  upon  the  wild,  mad  sea  of  life — my 
heart  goes  out  to  them,  one  and  all. 

I  tell  you  the  children  have  the  same  rights  that 
we  have,  and  we  ought  to  treat  them  as  though 
they  were  human  beings.  They  should  be  reared 
with  love,  with  kindness,  with  tenderness,  and  not 
with  brutality.     That  is  my  idea  of  children. 

When  your  little  child  tells  a  lie,  do  not  rush  at 
him  as  though  the  world  were  about  to  go  into 
bankruptcy.  Be  honest  with  him.  A  tyrant  father 
will  have  liars  for  his  children ;  do  you  know  that  ? 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  373 

A  lie  is  born  of  tyranny  upon  the  one  hand  and 
weakness  upon  the  other,  and  when  you  rush  at  a 
poor  little  boy  with  a  club  in  your  hand,  of  course 
he  lies. 

I  thank  thee,  Mother  Nature,  that  thou  hast  put 
ingenuity  enough  in  the  brain  of  a  child,  when 
attacked  by  a  brutal  parent,  to  throw  up  a  little 
breastwork  in  the  shape  of  a  lie. 

When  one  of  your  children  tells  a  lie,  be  honest 
with  him ;  tell  him  that  you  have  told  hundreds  of 
them  yourself.  Tell  him  it  is  not  the  best  way; 
that  you  have  tried  it.  Tell  him  as  the  man  did  in 
Maine  when  his  boy  left  home:  "John,  honesty  is 
the  best  policy;  I  have  tried  both."  Be  honest 
with  him.  Suppose  a  man  as  much  larger  than  you 
as  you  are  larger  than  a  child  five  years  old,  should 
come  at  you  with  a  liberty  pole  in  his  hand,  and  in 
a  voice  of  thunder  shout,  "  Who  broke  that  plate? " 
There  is  not  a  solitary  one  of  you  who  would  not 
swear  you  never  saw  it,  or  that  it  was  cracked 
when  you  got  it.  Why  not  be  honest  with  these 
children  }  Just  imagine  a  man  who  deals  in  stocks 
whipping  his  boy  for  putting  false  rumors  afloat ! 
Think  of  a  lawyer  beating  his  own  flesh  and  blood 
for  evading  the  truth  when  he  makes  half  of  his 


374  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

own  living  that  way !  Think  of  a  minister 
punishing  his  child  for  not  telling  all  he  thinks ! 
Just  think  of  it! 

When  your  child  commits  a  wrong,  take  it  in 
your  arms ;  let  it  feel  your  heart  beat  against  its 
heart ;  let  the  child  know  that  you  really  and  truly 
and  sincerely  love  it.  Yet  some  Christians,  good 
Christians,  when  a  child  commits  a  fault,  drive  it 
from  the  door  and  say:  "Never  do  you  darken  this 
house  again."  Think  of  that!  And  then  these 
same  people  will  get  down  on  their  knees  and  ask 
God  to  take  care  of  the  child  they  have  driven 
from  home.  I  will  never  ask  God  to  take  care  of 
my  children  unless  I  am  doing  my  level  best  in  that 
same  direction. 

But  I  will  tell  you  what  I  say  to  my  children  : 
"  Go  where  you  will  ;  commit  what  crime  you  may  ; 
fall  to  what  depth  of  degradation  you  may ;  you 
can  never  commit  any  crime  that  will  shut  my  door, 
my  arms,  or  my  heart  to  you.  As  long  as  I  live 
you  shall  have  one  sincere  friend." 

Do  you  know  that  I  have  seen  some  people 
who  acted  as  though  they  thought  that  when  the 
Savior  said  *'  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  he  had  a 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  375 

raw-hide  under  his  mantle,  and  made  that  remark 
simply  to  get  the  children  within  striking  distance  ? 

I  do  not  believe  in  the  government  of  the  lash. 
If  any  one  of  you  ever  expects  to  whip  your  chil- 
dren again,  I  want  you  to  have  a  photograph  taken 
of  yourself  when  you  are  in  the  act,  with  your  face 
red  with  vulgar  anger,  and  the  face  of  the  little 
child,  with  eyes  swimming  in  tears  and  the  little 
chin  dimpled  with  fear,  like  a  piece  of  water  struck 
by  a  sudden  cold  wind.  Have  the  picture  taken. 
If  that  little  child  should  die,  I  cannot  think  of  a 
sweeter  way  to  spend  an  autumn  afternoon  than  to 
go  out  to  the  cemetery,  when  the  maples  are  clad 
in  tender  gold,  and  little  scarlet  runners  are  coming, 
like  poems  of  regret,  from  the  sad  heart  of  the 
earth  —  and  sit  down  upon  the  grave  and  look  at 
that  photograph,  and  think  of  the  flesh  now  dust 
that  you  beat.  I  tell  you  it  is  wrong ;  it  is  no  way 
to  raise  children!  Make  your  home  happy.  Be 
honest  with  them.  Divide  fairly  with  them  in 
everything. 

Give  them  a  little  liberty  and  love,  and  you  can 
not  drive  them  out  of  your  house.  They  will  want 
to  stay  there.  Make  home  pleasant.  Let  them 
play  any  game  they  wish.     Do  not  be  so  foolish  as 


376  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

to  say  :  **  You  may  roll  balls  on  the  ground,  but  you 
must  not  roll  them  on  a  green  cloth.  You  may 
knock  them  with  a  mallet,  but  you  must  not  push 
them  with  a  cue.  You  may  play  with  little  pieces 
of  paper  which  have  *  authors '  written  on  them,  but 
you  must  not  have  'cards.'"  Think  of  it!  "You 
may  go  to  a  minstrel  show  where  people  blacken 
themselves  and  imitate  humanity  below  them,  but 
you  must  not  go  to  a  theatre  and  see  the  characters 
created  by  immortal  genius  put  upon  the  stage." 
Why  ?  Well,  I  can't  think  of  any  reason  in  the 
world  except  **  minstrel "  is  a  word  of  two  syllables, 
and  "  theatre  "  has  three. 

Let  children  have  some  daylight  at  home  if  you 
want  to  keep  them  there,  and  do  not  commence  at 
the  cradle  and  shout  "  Do  n't !  "  ''  Do  n't !  "  '*  Stop !  " 
That  is  nearly  all  that  is  said  to  a  child  from 
the  cradle  until  he  is  twenty-one  years  old,  and 
when  he  comes  of  age  other  people  begin  saying 
"Don't!"  And  the  church  says  ''Don't!"  and 
the  party  he  belongs  to  says  "  Don't !  " 

I  despise  that  way  of  going  through  this  world. 
Let  us  have  liberty — -just  a  little.  Call  me  infidel, 
call  me  atheist,  call  me  w^hat  you  will,  I  intend  so  to 
treat  my  children,  that  they  can  come  to  my  grave 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND   CHILD  377 

and  truthfully  say  :  "He  who  sleeps  here  never 
gave  us  a  moment  of  pain.  From  his  lips,  now 
dust,  never  came  to  us  an  unkind  word," 

People  justify  all  kinds  of  tyranny  toward 
children  upon  the  ground  that  they  are  totally 
depraved.  At  the  bottom  of  ages  of  cruelty  lies 
this  infamous  doctrine  of  total  depravity.  Religion 
contemplates  a  child  as  a  living  crime — heir  to  an 
infinite  curse — doomed  to  eternal  fire. 

In  the  olden  time,  they  thought  some  days  were 
too  good  for  a  child  to  enjoy  himself.  When  I  was 
a  boy  Sunday  was  considered  altogether  too  holy 
to  be  happy  in.  Sunday  used  to  commence  then 
when  the  sun  went  down  on  Saturday  night.  We 
commenced  at  that  time  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
a  good  ready,  and  when  the  sun  fell  below  the 
horizon  on  Saturday  evening,  there  was  a  darkness 
fell  upon  the  house  ten  thousand  times  deeper 
than  that  ot  night.  Nobody  said  a  pleasant  word  ; 
nobody  laughed ;  nobody  smiled  ;  the  child  that 
looked  the  sickest  was  regarded  as  the  most  pious. 
That  night  you  could  not  even  crack  hickory  nutSo 
If  you  were  caught  chewing  gum  it  was  only 
another  evidence  of  the  total  depravity  of  the 
human  heart     It  was  an  exceedingly  solemn  night. 


378  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

Dyspepsia  was  in  the  very  air  you  breathed. 
Everybody  looked  sad  and  mournful.  I  have 
noticed  all  my  life  that  many  people  think  they 
have  religion  when  they  are  troubled  with  dys- 
pepsia. If  there  could  be  found  an  absolute 
specific  for  that  disease,  it  would  be  the  hardest 
blow  the  church  has  ever  received. 

On  Sunday  morning  the  solemnity  had  simply 
increased.  Then  we  went  to  church.  The 
minister  was  in  a  pulpit  about  twenty  feet  high, 
with  a  little  sounding-board  above  him,  and  he 
commenced  at  "firstly"  and  went  on  and  on  and 
on  to  about  "twenty-thirdly."  Then  he  made  a 
few  remarks  by  way  of  application ;  and  then  took 
a  general  view  of  the  subject,  and  in  about  two 
hours  reached  the  last  chapter  in  Revelation. 

In  those  days,  no  matter  how  cold  the  weather 
was,  there  was  no  fire  in  the  church.  It  was 
thought  to  be  a  kind  of  sin  to  be  comfortable  while 
you  were  thanking  God.  The  first  church  that 
ever  had  a  stove  in  it  in  New  England,  divided  on 
that  account.  So  the  first  church  in  which  they 
sang  by  note,  was  torn  in  fragments. 

After  the  sermon  we  had  an  intermission. 
Then   came  the  catechism  with   the    chief  end   of 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND    CHILD.  379 

man.  We  went  through  with  that.  We  sat  in  a 
row  with  our  feet  coming  in  about  six  inches  of  the 
floor.  The  minister  asked  us  if  we  knew  that  we 
all  deserved  to  go  to  hell,  and  we  all  answered 
"  Yes."  Then  we  were  asked  if  we  would  be  will- 
ing to  go  to  hell  if  it  was  God's  will,  and  every  little 
liar  shouted  '*  Yes."  Then  the  same  sermon  was 
preached  once  more,  commencing  at  the  other  end 
and  going  back.  After  that,  we  started  for  home, 
sad  and  solemn — overpowered  with  the  wisdom 
displayed  in  the  scheme  of  the  atonement.  When 
we  got  home,  if  we  had  been  good  boys,  and  the 
weather  was  warm,  sometimes  they  would  take  us 
out  to  the  graveyard  to  cheer  us  up  a  little.  It  did 
cheer  me.  When  I  looked  at  the  sunken  tombs 
and  the  leaning  stones,  and  read  the  half-effaced 
inscriptions  through  the  moss  of  silence  and  forget- 
fulness,  it  was  a  great  comfort.  The  reflection 
came  to  my  mind  that  the  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath could  not  last  always.  Sometimes  they  would 
sing  that  beautiful  hymn  in  which  occurs  these 
cheerful  lines: 

"Where  congregations  ne'er  break  up, 
And  Sabbaths  never  end." 

These    lines,    I   think,   prejudiced  me   a  little 


38o  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

against  even  heaven.  Then  we  had  good  books 
that  we  read  on  Sundays  by  way  of  keeping  us 
happy  and  contented.  There  were  Milners' 
"History  of  the  Waldenses,"  Baxter's  "Call  to  the 
Unconverted,"  Yahn's  "Archaeology  of  the  Jews," 
and  Jenkyns'  "  On  the  Atonement."  I  used  to  read 
Jenkyns'  "On  the  Atonement."  I  have  often 
thought  that  an  atonement  would  have  to  be 
exceedingly  broad  in  its  provisions  to  cover  the 
case  of  a  man  who  would  write  a  book  like  that 
for  a  boy. 

But  at  last  the  Sunday  wore  away,  and  the 
moment  the  sun  went  down  we  were  free.  Be- 
tween three  and  four  o'clock  we  would  go  out  to 
see  how  the  sun  was  coming  on.  Sometimes  it 
seemed  to  me  that  it  was  stopping  from  pure 
meanness.  But  finally  it  went  down.  It  had  to. 
And  when  the  last  rim  of  light  sank  below  the 
horizon,  off  would  go  our  caps,  and  we  would  give 
three  cheers  for  liberty  once  more. 

Sabbaths  used  to  be  prisons.  Every  Sunday 
was  a  Bastile.  Every  Christian  was  a  kind  of  turn- 
key, and  every  child  was  a  prisoner, — a  convict. 
In  that  dungeon,  a  smile  was  a  crime. 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  381 

It  was  thought  wrong  for  a  child  to  laugh  upon 
this  holy  day.     Think  of  that ! 

A  little  child  would  go  out  into  the  garden,  and 
there  would  be  a  tree  laden  with  blossoms,  and  the 
little  fellow  would  lean  against  it,  and  there  would 
be  a  bird  on  one  of  the  boughs,  singing  and  swing- 
ing, and  thinking  about  four  little  speckled  eggs, 
warmed  by  the  breast  of  its  mate, — singing  and 
swinging,  and  the  music  in  happy  waves  rippling 
out  of  its  tiny  throat,  and  the  flowers  blossoming, 
the  air  filled  with  perfume  and  the  great  white 
clouds  floating  in  the  sky,  and  the  little  boy  would 
lean  up  against  that  tree  and  think  about  hell  and 
the  worm  that  never  dies. 

I  have  heard  them  preach,  when  I  sat  in  the 
pew  and  my  feet  did  not  touch  the  floor,  about  the 
final  home  of  the  unconverted.  In  order  to  impress 
upon  the  children  the  length  of  time  they  would 
probably  stay  if  they  settled  in  that  country,  the 
preacher  would  frequently  give  us  the  following 
illustration:  "Suppose  that  once  in  a  billion  years 
a  bird  should  come  from  some  far-distant  planet, 
and  carry  off  in  its  little  bill  a  grain  of  sand,  a  time 
would  finally  come  when  the  last  atom  composing 
this  earth  would  be  carried  away;  and  when  this 


382  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

last  atom  was  taken,  it  would  not  even  be  sun 
up  in  hell."  Think  of  such  an  infamous  doctrine 
being  taught  to  children ! 

The  laugh  of  a  child  will  make  the  holiest  day 
more  sacred  still.  Strike  with  hand  of  fire,  O 
weird  musician,  thy  harp  strung  with  Apollo's 
golden  hair;  fill  the  vast  cathedral  aisles  with 
symphonies  sweet  and  dim,  deft  toucher  of  the 
organ  keys;  blow,  bugler,  blow,  until  thy  silver 
notes  do  touch  and  kiss  the  moonlit  waves,  and 
charm  the  lovers  wandering  'mid  the  vine-clad  hills. 
But  know,  your  sweetest  strains  are  discords  all, 
compared  with  childhood's  happy  laugh — the  laugh 
that  fills  the  eyes  with  light  and  every  heart  with 
joy.  O  rippling  river  of  laughter,  thou  art  the 
blessed  boundary  line  between  the  beasts  and  men ; 
and  every  wayward  wave  of  thine  doth  drown  some 
fretful  fiend  of  care.  O  Laughter,  rose-lipped 
daughter  of  Joy,  there  are  dimples  enough  in  thy 
cheeks  to  catch  and  hold  and  glorify  all  the  tears 
of  grief. 

And  yet  the  minds  of  children  have  been 
polluted  by  this  infamous  doctrine  of  eternal 
punishment.  I  denounce  it  to-day  as  a  doctrine, 
the  infamy  of  which  no  language  is  sufficient  to 
express. 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  383 

Where  did  that  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment 
for  men  and  women  and  children  come  from  ?  It 
came  from  the  low  and  beastly  skull  of  that  wretch 
in  the  dug-out.  Where  did  he  get  it  ?  It  was  a 
souvenir  from  the  animals.  The  doctrine  of  eternal 
punishment  was  born  in  the  glittering  eyes  of 
snakes — snakes  that  hung  in  fearful  coils  watching 
for  their  prey.  It  was  born  of  the  howl  and  bark 
and  growl  of  wild  beasts.  It  was  born  of  the  grin 
of  hyenas  and  of  the  depraved  chatter  of  unclean 
baboons.  I  despise  it  with  every  drop  of  my 
blood.  Tell  me  there  is  a  God  in  the  serene 
heavens  that  will  damn  his  children  for  the 
expression  of  an  honest  belief!  More  men  have 
died  in  their  sins,  judged  by  your  orthodox  creeds, 
than  there  are  leaves  on  all  the  forests  in  the  wide 
world  ten  thousand  times  over.  Tell  me  these  men 
are  in  hell;  that  these  men  are  in  torment;  that 
these  children  are  in  eternal  pain,  and  that  they 
are  to  be  punished  forever  and  forever !  I  denounce 
this  doctrine  as  the  most  infamous  of  lies. 

When  the  great  ship  containing  the  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  the  world,  when  the  great  ship 
freighted  with  mankind  goes  down  in  the  night  of 
death,    chaos   and    disaster,    I    am    willing    to   go 


384  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

down  with  the  ship.  I  will  not  be  guilty  of  the 
ineffable  meanness  of  paddling  away  in  some  or- 
thodox canoe.  I  will  go  down  with  the  ship,  with 
those  who  love  me,  and  with  those  whom  I  have 
loved.  If  there  is  a  God  who  will  damn  his 
children  forever,  I  would  rather  go  to  hell  than  to 
go  to  heaven  and  keep  the  society  of  such  an  in- 
famous tyrant.  I  make  my  choice  now.  I  despise 
that  doctrine.  It  has  covered  the  cheeks  of  this 
world  with  tears.  It  has  polluted  the  hearts  of 
children,  and  poisoned  the  imaginations  of  men.  It 
has  been  a  constant  pain,  a  perpetual  terror  to 
every  good  man  and  woman  and  child.  It  has 
filled  the  good  with  horror  and  with  fear;  but  it  has 
had  no  effect  upon  the  infamous  and  base.  It  has 
wrung  the  hearts  of  the  tender  ;  it  has  furrowed  the 
cheeks  of  the  good.  This  doctrine  never  should 
be  preached  again.  What  right  have  you,  sir,  Mr. 
clergyman,  you,  minister  of  the  gospel,  to  stand  at 
the  portals  of  the  tomb,  at  the  vestibule  of  eternity, 
and  fill  the  future  with  horror  and  with  fear?  I  do 
not  believe  this  doctrine:  neither  do  you.  If  you 
did,  you  could  not  sleep  one  moment.  Any  man 
who  believes  it,  and  has  within  his  breast  a  decent, 
throbbing    heart,    will    go   insane.       A    man   who 


MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  385 

believes  that  doctrine  and  does  not  go  insane  has 
the  heart  of  a  snake  and  the  conscience  of  a 
hyena. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  the  dear  old  soul,  who,  if 
his  doctrine  is  true,  is  now  in  heaven  rubbing  his 
holy  hands  with  glee,  as  he  hears  the  cries  of  the 
damned,  preached  this  doctrine ;  and  he  said : 
"  Can  the  believing  husband  in  heaven  be  happy 
with  his  unbelieving  wife  in  hell?  Can  the 
believing  father  in  heaven  be  happy  with  his 
unbelieving  children  in  hell?  Can  the  loving  wife 
in  heaven  be  happy  with  her  unbelieving  husband 
in  hell?"  And  he  replies:  "I  tell  you,  yea.  Such 
will  be  their  sense  of  justice,  that  it  will  increase 
rather  than  diminish  their  bliss."  There  is  no  wild 
beast  in  the  jungles  of  Africa  whose  reputation 
would  not  be  tarnished  by  the  expression  of  such  a 
doctrine. 

These  doctrines  have  been  taught  in  the  name 
of  religion,  in  the  name  of  universal  forgiveness,  in 
the  name  of  infinite  love  and  charity.  Do  not,  I 
pray  you,  soil  the  minds  of  your  children  with  this 
dogma.  Let  them  read  for  themselves  ;  let  them 
think  for  themselves. 

Do  not  treat  your  children  like  orthodox  posts 


386  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

to  be  set  in  a  row.  Treat  them  like  trees  that  need 
light  and  sun  and  air.  Be  fair  and  honest  with 
them;  give  them  a  chance.  Recollect  that  their 
rights  are  equal  to  yours.  Do  not  have  it  in  your 
mind  that  you  must  govern  them ;  that  they  must 
obey.  Throw  away  forever  the  idea  of  master  and 
slave. 

In  old  times  they  used  to  make  the  children  go 
to  bed  when  they  were  not  sleepy,  and  get  up  when 
they  were  sleepy.  I  say  let  them  go  to  bed  when 
they  are  sleepy,  and  get  up  when  they  are  not 
sleepy. 

But  you  say,  this  doctrine  will  do  for  the  rich 
but  not  for  the  poor.  Well,  if  the  poor  have  to 
waken  their  children  early  in  the  morning  it  is  as 
easy  to  wake  them  with  a  kiss  as  with  a  blow. 
Give  your  children  freedom;  let  them  preserve 
their  individuality.  Let  your  children  eat  what 
they  desire,  and  commence  at  the  end  of  a  dinner 
they  like.  That  is  their  business  and  not  yours. 
They  know  what  they  wish  to  eat.  If  they  are 
given  their  liberty  from  the  first,  they  know  what 
they  want  better  than  any  doctor  in  the  world  can 
prescribe.  Do  you  know  that  all  the  improvement 
that  has  ever  been  made  in  the  practice  of  medicine 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  3,^7 

has  been  made  by  the  recklessness  of  patients  and 
not  by  the  doctors?  For  thousands  and  thousands 
of  years  the  doctors  would  not  let  a  man  suffering 
from  fever  have  a  drop  of  water.  Water  they 
looked  upon  as  poison.  But  every  now  and  then 
some  man  got  reckless  and  said,  "  I  had  rather  die 
than  not  to  slake  my  thirst."  Then  he  would  drink 
two  or  three  quarts  of  water  and  get  well.  And 
when  the  doctor  was  told  of  what  the  patient  had 
done,  he  expressed  great  surprise  that  he  was  still 
alive,  and  complimented  his  constitution  upon  being 
able  to  bear  such  a  frightful  strain.  The  reckless 
men,  however,  kept  on  drinking  the  water,  and 
persisted  in  getting  well.  And  finally  the  doctors 
said :  "  In  a  fever,  water  is  the  very  best  thing  you 
can  take."  So,  I  have  more  confidence  in  the 
voice  of  nature  about  such  things  than  I  have  in 
the  conclusions  of  the  medical  schools. 

Let  your  children  have  freedom  and  they  will 
fall  into  your  ways;  they  will  do  substantially  as 
you  do ;  but  if  you  try  to  make  them,  there  is  some 
magnificent,  splendid  thing  in  the  human  heart  that 
refuses  to  be  driven.  And  do  you  know  that  it  is 
the  luckiest  thing  that  ever  happened  for  this 
world,  that  people  are  that  way.    What  would  have 


388  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

become  of  the  people  five  hundred  years  ago  if 
they  had  followed  strictly  the  advice  of  the 
doctors?  They  would  have  all  been  dead.  What 
would  the  people  have  been,  if  at  any  age  of  the 
world  they  had  followed  implicitly  the  direction  of 
the  church?  They  would  have  all  been  idiots.  It 
is  a  splendid  thing  that  there  is  always  some  grand 
man  who  will  not  mind,  and  who  will  think  for 
himself. 

I  believe  in  allowing  the  children  to  think  for 
themselves.  I  believe  in  the  democracy  of  the 
family.  If  in  this  world  there  is  anything  splendid, 
it  is  a  home  where  all  are  equals. 

You  will  remember  that  only  a  few  years  ago 
parents  would  tell  their  children  to  "let  their 
victuals  stop  their  mouths."  They  used  to  eat  as 
though  it  were  a  religious  ceremony  —  a  very 
solemn  thing.  Life  should  not  be  treated  as  a 
solemn  matter.  I  like  to  see  the  children  at 
table,  and  hear  each  one  telling  of  the  wonderful 
things  he  has  seen  and  heard.  I  like  to  hear  the 
clatter  of  knives  and  forks  and  spoons  mingling 
with  their  happy  voices.  I  had  rather  hear  it  than 
any  opera  that  was  ever  put  upon  the  boards.  Let 
the  children  have  liberty.     Be  honest  and  fair  with 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD.  3S9 

them;  be  just;  be  tender,  and  they  will  make  you 
rich  in  love  and  joy. 

Men  are  oaks,  women  are  vines,  children  are 
flowers. 

The  human  race  has  been  guilty  of  almost 
countless  crimes ;  but  I  have  some  excuse  for 
mankind.  This  world,  after  all,  is  not  very  well 
adapted  to  raising  good  people.  In  the  first  place, 
nearly  all  of  it  is  water.  It  is  much  better  adapted 
to  fish  culture  than  to  the  production  of  folks.  Of 
that  portion  which  is  land  not  one-eighth  has 
suitable  soil  and  climate  to  produce  great  men  and 
women.  You  cannot  raise  men  and  women  of 
genius,  without  the  proper  soil  and  climate,  any 
more  than  you  can  raise  corn  and  wheat  upon  the 
ice  fields  of  the  Arctic  sea.  You  must  have  the 
necessary  conditions  and  surroundings.  Man  is 
a  product ;  you  must  have  the  soil  and  food.  The 
obstacles  presented  by  nature  must  not  be  so 
great  that  man  cannot,  by  reasonable  industry  and 
courage,  overcome  them.  There  is  upon  this  world 
only  a  narrow  belt  of  land,  circling  zigzag  the 
globe,  upon  which  you  can  produce  men  and 
women  of   talent.      In  the   Southern   Hemisphere 


390  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

the  real  climate  that  man  needs  falls  mostly  upon 
the  sea,  and  the  result  is,  that  the  southern  half  of 
our  world  has  never  produced  a  man  or  woman  of 
great  genius.  In  the  far  north  there  is  no  genius 
—  it  is  too  cold.  In  the  far  south  there  is  no 
genius — it  is  too  warm.  There  must  be  winter, 
and  there  must  be  summer.  In  a  country  where 
man  needs  no  coverlet  but  a  cloud,  revolution  is 
his  normal  condition.  Winter  is  the  mother  of 
industry  and  prudence.  Above  all,  it  is  the  mother 
of  the  family  relation.  Winter  holds  in  its  icy  arms 
the  husband  and  wife  and  the  sweet  children.  If 
upon  this  earth  we  ever  have  a  glimpse  of  heaven, 
it  is  when  we  pass  a  home  in  winter,  at  night,  and 
through  the  windows,  the  curtains  drawn  aside,  we 
see  the  family  about  the  pleasant  hearth;  the  old 
lady  knitting;  the  cat  playing  with  the  yarn;  the 
children  wishing  they  had  as  many  dolls  or  dollars 
or  knives  or  somethings,  as  there  are  sparks  going 
out  to  join  the  roaring  blast;  the  father  reading 
and  smoking,  and  the  clouds  rising  like  incense 
from  the  altar  of  domestic  joy.  I  never  passed 
such  a  house  without  feeling  that  I  had  received  a 
benediction. 

Civilization,   liberty,  justice,  charity,  intellectual 


MAN,  WOMAN  ANn   CHILD.  391 

advancement,  are  all  flowers  that  blossom  in  the 
drifted  snow. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  can  better  illustrate  the 
great  truth  that  only  part  of  the  world  is  adapted 
to  the  production  of  great  men  and  women  than  by 
calling  your  attention  to  the  difference  between 
vegetation  in  valleys  and  upon  mountains.  In  the 
valley  you  find  the  oak  and  elm  tossing  their 
branches  defiantly  to  the  storm,  and  as  you  advance 
up  the  mountain  side  the  hemlock,  the  pine,  the 
birch,  the  spruce,  the  fir,  and  finally  you  come  to 
little  dwarfed  trees,  that  look  like  other  trees  seen 
through  a  telescope  reversed  —  every  limb  twisted 
as  though  in  pain  —  getting  a  scanty  subsistence 
from  the  miserly  crevices  of  the  rocks.  You 
go  on  and  on,  until  at  last  the  highest  crag  is 
freckled  with  a  kind  of  moss,  and  vegetation  ends. 
You  might  as  well  try  to  raise  oaks  and  elms  where 
the  mosses  grow,  as  to  raise  great  men  and  great 
women  where  their  surroundings  are  unfavorable. 
You  must  have  the  proper  climate  and  soil. 

A  few  years  ago  we  were  talking  about  the 
annexation  of  Santo  Domingo  to  this  country.  I 
was  in  Washington  at  the  time.  I  was  opposed  to 
it.     I  was  told  that  it  was  a  most  delicious  climate ; 


392  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

that  the  soil  produced  everything.  But  I  said: 
"We  do  not  want  it;  it  is  not  the  right  kind  of 
country  in  which  to  raise  American  citizens.  Such 
a  climate  would  debauch  us.  You  might  go  there 
with  five  thousand  Congregational  preachers,  five 
thousand  ruling  elders,  five  thousand  professors  in 
colleges,  five  thousand  of  the  solid  men  of  Boston 
and  their  wives ;  settle  them  all  in  Santo  Domingo, 
and  you  will  see  the  second  generation  riding  upon 
a  mule,  bareback,  no  shoes,  a  grapevine  bridle,  hair 
sticking  out  at  the  top  of  their  sombreros,  with  a 
rooster  under  each  arm,  going  to  a  cock  fight  on 
Sunday."     Such  is  the  influence  of  climate. 

Science,  however,  is  gradually  widening  the 
area  within  which  men  of  genius  can  be  produced. 
We  are  conquering  the  north  with  houses,  clothing, 
food  and  fuel.  We  are  in  many  ways  overcoming 
the  heat  of  the  south.  If  we  attend  to  this  world 
instead  of  another,  we  may  in  time  cover  the  land 
with  men  and  women  of  genius. 

I  have  still  another  excuse.  I  believe  that  man 
came  up  from  the  lower  animals.  I  do  not  say  this 
as  a  fact.  I  simply  say  I  believe  it  to  be  a  fact. 
Upon  that  question  I  stand  about  eight  to  seven, 
which,   for   all  practical   purposes,   is   very  near   a 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND   CHILD,  393 

certainty.  When  I  first  heard  of  that  doctrine  I 
did  not  like  it.  My  heart  was  filled  with  sympathy 
for  those  people  who  have  nothing  to  be  proud 
of  except  ancestors.  I  thought,  how  terrible 
this  will  be  upon  the  nobility  of  the  Old  Worldo 
Think  of  their  being  forced  to  trace  their  ancestry 
back  to  the  duke  Orang  Outang,  or  to  the  princess 
Chimpanzee.  After  thinking  it  all  over,  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  I  liked  that  doctrine.  I  became 
convinced  in  spite  of  myself.  I  read  about 
rudimentary  bones  and  muscles.  I  was  told  that 
everybody  had  rudimentary  muscles  extending 
from  the  ear  into  the  cheek.  I  asked  **  What  are 
they?"  I  was  told:  *'They  are  the  remains  of 
muscles ;  that  they  became  rudimentary  from  lack 
of  use  ;  they  went  into  bankruptcy.  They  are  the 
muscles  with  which  your  ancestors  used  to  flap 
their  ears."  I  do  not  now  so,  much  wonder  that 
we  once  had  them  as  that  we  have  outgrown  them. 
After  all  I  had  rather  belong  to  a  race  that 
started  from  the  skull-less  vertebrates  in  the  dim 
Laurentian  seas,  vertebrates  wiggling  without 
knowing  why  they  wiggled,  swimming  without 
knowing  where  they  were  going,  but  that  in  some 
way  began  to  develop,  and  began  to  get  a  little 


394  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

higher  and  a  little  higher  in  the  scale  of  existence ; 
that  came  up  by  degrees  through  millions  of  ages 
through  all  the  animal  world,  through  all  that  crawls 
and  swims  and  floats  and  climbs  and  walks,  and 
finally  produced  the  gentleman  in  the  dug-out  ;  and 
then  from  this  man,  getting  a  little  grander,  and 
each  one  below  calling  every  one  above  him  a 
heretic,  calling  every  one  who  had  made  a  little 
advance  an  infidel  or  an  atheist — for  in  the  history 
of  this  world  the  man  who  is  ahead  has  always 
been  called  a  heretic  —  T  would  rather  come  from  a 
race  that  started  from  that  skull-less  vertebrate,  and 
came  up  and  up  and  up  and  finally  produced 
Shakespeare,  the  man  who  found  the  human  intel- 
lect dwelling  in  a  hut,  touched  it  with  the  wand  of 
his  genius  and  it  became  a  palace  domed  and 
pinnacled ;  Shakespeare,  who  harvested  all  the 
fields  of  dramatic  thought,  and  from  whose  day  to 
this,  there  have  been  only  gleaners  of  straw  and 
chaff —  I  would  rather  belong  to  that  race  that 
commenced  a  skull-less  vertebrate  and  produced 
Shakespeare,  a  race  that  has  before  it  an  infinite 
future,  with  the  angel  of  progress  leaning  from  the 
far  horizon,  beckoning  men  forward,  upward  and 
onward   forever — I    had   rather   belong   to   such  a 


MAN,   WOMAN  AND  CHILD,  395 

race,  commencing  there,  producing  this,  and  with 
that  hope,  than  to  have  sprung  from  a  perfect  pair 
upon  which  the  Lord  has  lost  money  every  moment 
from  that  day  to  this. 

CONCLUSION. 

I  have  given  you  my  honest  thought.  Surely 
investigation  is  better  than  unthinking  faith. 
Surely  reason  is  a  better  guide  than  fear.  This 
world  should  be  controlled  by  the  living,  not  by 
the  dead.  The  grave  is  not  a  throne,  and  a 
corpse  is  not  a  king.  Man  should  not  try  to  live 
on  ashes. 

The  theologians  dead,  knew  no  more  than  the 
theologians  now  living.  More  than  this  cannot  be 
said.  About  this  world  little  is  known, —  about 
another  world,  nothing. 

Our  fathers  were  intellectual  serfs,  and  their 
fathers  were  slaves.  The  makers  of  our  creeds 
were  ignorant  and  brutal.  Every  dogma  that  we 
have,  has  upon  it  the  mark  of  whip,  the  rust  of 
chain,  and  the  ashes  of  fagot. 

Our  fathers  reasoned  with  instruments  of  tor- 
ture. They  believed  in  the  logic  of  fire  and  sword. 
They  hated  reason.  They  despised  thought. 
They  abhorred  liberty. 


396  THE  LIBERTY  OF 

Superstition  is  the  child  of  slavery.  Free 
thought  will  give  us  truth.  When  all  have  the 
right  to  think  and  to  express  their  thoughts, 
every  brain  will  give  to  all  the  best  it  has.  The 
world  will  then  be  filled  with  intellectual  wealth. 

As  long  as  men  and  women  are  afraid  of  the 
church,  as  long  as  a  minister  inspires  fear,  as  long 
as  people  reverence  a  thing  simply  because  they 
do  not  understand  it,  as  long  as  it  is  respectable 
to  lose  your  self-respect,  as  long  as  the  church 
has  power,  as  long  as  mankind  worship  a  book, 
just  so  long  will  the  world  be  filled  with  intel- 
lectual paupers  and  vagrants,  covered  with  the 
soiled  and  faded  rags  of  superstition. 

As  long  as  woman  regards  the  Bible  as  the 
charter  of  her  rights,  she  will  be  the  slave  of  man. 
The  Bible  was  not  written  by  a  woman.  Within  its 
lids  there  is  nothing  but  humiliation  and  shame 
for  her.  She  is  regarded  as  the  property  of  man. 
She  is  made  to  ask  forgiveness  for  becoming  a 
mother.  She  is  as  much  below  her  husband,  as 
her  husband  is  below  Christ.  She  is  not  allowed 
to  speak.  The  gospel  is  too  pure  to  be  spoken  by 
her  polluted  lips.     Woman  should  learn  in  silence. 

In  the  Bible  will  be  found  no  description  of  a 


MAN,    WOMAN  AND   CHILD.  397 

civilized  home.  The  free  mother  surrounded  by 
free  and  loving  children,  adored  by  a  free  man,  her 
husband,  was  unknown  to  the  inspired  writers  of 
the  Bible.  They  did  not  believe  in  the  democracy 
of  home — in  the  republicanism  of  the  fireside. 

These  inspired  gentlemen  knew  nothing  of  the 
rights  of  children.  They  were  the  advocates  of 
brute  force — the  disciples  of  the  lash.  They  knew 
nothing  of  human  rights.  Their  doctrines  have 
brutalized  the  homes  of  millions,  and  filled  the 
eyes  of  infancy  with  tears. 

Let  us  free  ourselves  from  the  tyranny  of  a 
book,  from  the  slavery  of  dead  ignorance,  from  the 
aristocracy  of  the  air. 

There  has  never  been  upon  the  earth  a  gener- 
ation of  free  men  and  women.  It  is  not  yet  time 
to  write  a  creed.  Wait  until  the  chains  are  broken 
— until  dungeons  are  not  regarded  as  temples. 
Wait  until  solemnity  is  not  mistaken  for  wisdom — 
until  mental  cowardice  ceases  to  be  known  as  rev- 
erence. Wait  until  the  living  are  considered  the 
equals  of  the  dead — until  the  cradle  takes  prece> 
dence  of  the  coffin.  Wait  until  what  we  know  can 
be  spoken  without  regard  to  what  others  may 
believe.      Wait  until   teachers   take   the    place    of 


398  THE  LIBERTY  OF  MAN,  ETC. 

preachers  —  until  followers  become  investigators. 
Wait  until  the  world  is  free  before  you  write  a 
creed. 

In  this  creed  there  will  be  but  one  word  — 
Liberty. 

Oh  Liberty,  float  not  forever  in  the  far  horizon 
—  remain  not  forever  in  the  dream  of  the  enthu- 
siast, the  philanthropist  and  poet,  but  come  and 
make  thy  home  among  the  children  of  men ! 

I  know  not  what  discoveries,  what  inventions, 
what  thoughts  may  leap  from  the  brain  of  the 
world.  I  know  not  what  garments  of  glory  may 
be  woven  by  the  years  to  come.  I  cannot  dream 
of  the  victories  to  be  won  upon  the  fields  of 
thought ;  but  I  do  know,  that  coming  from  the 
infinite  sea  of  the  future,  there  will  never  touch 
this  **  bank  and  shoal  of  time "  a  richer  gift,  a 
rarer  blessing  than  liberty  for  man,  for  woman,  and 
for  child. 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 


To  Plow  is  to  Pray — to  Plant  is  to  Prophesy,  and 
THE  Harvest  Answers  and  Fulfills. 

I  AM  not  an  old  and  experienced  farmer,  nor  a 
tiller  of  the  soil,  nor  one  of  the  hard-handed 
sons  of  labor.  I  imagine,  however,  that  I  know 
something  about  cultivating  the  soil,  and  getting 
happiness  out  of  the  ground. 

I  know  enough  to  know  that  agriculture  is  the 
basis  of  all  wealth,  prosperity  and  luxury.  I  know 
that  in  a  country  where  the  tillers  of  the  fields  are 
free,  everybody  is  free  and  ought  to  be  prosperous. 
Happy  is  that  country  where  those  who  cultivate 
the  land  own  it.  Patriotism  is  born  in  the  woods 
and  fields — by  lakes  and  streams — by  crags  and 
plains. 

The  old  way  of  farming  was  a  great  mistake. 
Everything  was  done  the  wrong  way.  It  was  all 
work  and  waste,  weariness  and  want.     They  used 

(401) 


402  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS, 

to  fence  a  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  with  a 
couple  of  dogs.  Everything  was  left  to  the  pro- 
tection of  the  blessed  trinity  of  chance,  accident 
and  mistake. 

When  I  was  a  farmer  they  used  to  haul  wheat 
two  hundred  miles  in  wagons  and  sell  it  for  thirty- 
five  cents  a  bushel.  They  would  bring  home 
about  three  hundred  feet  of  lumber,  two  bunches 
of  shingles,  a  barrel  of  salt,  and  a  cook-stove  that 
never  would  draw  and  never  did  bake. 

In  those  blessed  days  the  people  lived  on  corn 
and  bacon.  Cooking  was  an  unknown  art.  Eating 
was  a  necessity,  not  a  pleasure.  It  was  hard  work 
for  the  cook  to  keep  on  good  terms  even  with 
hunger. 

We  had  poor  houses.  The  rain  held  the  roofs 
in  perfect  contempt,  and  the  snow  drifted  joyfully 
on  the  floors  and  beds.  They  had  no  barns. 
The  horses  were  kept  in  rail  pens  surrounded  with 
straw.  Long  before  spring  the  sides  would  be 
eaten  away  and  nothing  but  roofs  would  be  left. 
Food  is  fuel.  When  the  cattle  were  exposed  to 
all  the  blasts  of  winter,  it  took  all  the  corn  and 
oats  that  could  be  stuffed  into  them  to  prevent 
actual  starvation. 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS,  403 

in  those  times  most  farmers  thought  the  best 
place  for  the  pig-pen  was  immediately  in  front  of 
the  house.  There  is  nothing  like  sociability. 
«  Women  were  supposed  to  know  the  art  of 
making  fires  without  fuel.  The  wood  pile  con- 
sisted, as  a  general  thing,  of  one  log  upon  which 
an  axe  or  two  had  been  worn  out  in  vain.  There 
was  nothing  to  kindle  a  fire  with.  Pickets  were 
pulled  from  the  garden  fence,  clap-boards  taken 
from  the  house,  and  every  stray  plank  was  seized 
upon  for  kindling.  Everything  was  done  in  the 
hardest  way.  Everything  about  the  farm  was 
disagreeable.  Nothing  was  kept  in  order.  Noth- 
ing was  preserved.  The  wagons  stood  in  the  sun 
and  rain,  and  the  plows  rusted  in  the  fields.  There 
was  no  leisure,  no  feeling  that  the  work  was  done. 
It  was  all  labor  and  weariness  and  vexation  of 
spirit.  The  crops  were  destroyed  by  wandering 
herds,  or  they  were  put  in  too  late,  or  too  early,  or 
they  were  blown  down,  or  caught  by  the  frost,  or 
devoured  by  bugs,  or  stung  by  flies,  or  eaten  by 
worms,  or  carried  away  by  birds,  or  dug  up  by 
gophers,  or  washed  away  by  floods,  or  dried  up 
by  the  sun,  or  rotted  in  the  stack,  or  heated  in  the 
crib,  or  they  all  run  to  vines,  or  tops,  or  straw,  or 


404  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

smut,  or  cobs.  And  when  in  spite  of  all  these 
accidents  that  lie  in  wait  between  the  plow  and 
the  reaper,  they  did  succeed  in  raising  a  good 
crop  and  a  high  price  was  offered,  then  the  roads 
would  be  impassable.  And  when  the  roads  got 
good,  then  the  prices  went  down.  Everything 
worked  together  for  evil. 

Nearly  every  farmer's  boy  took  an  oath  that  he 
never  would  cultivate  the  soil.  The  moment  they 
arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  they  left  the 
desolate  and  dreary  farms  and  rushed  to  the 
towns  and  cities.  They  wanted  to  be  book- 
keepers, doctors,  merchants,  railroad  men,  insur- 
ance agents,  lawyers,  even  preachers,  anything  to 
avoid  the  drudgery  of  the  farm.  Nearly  every  boy 
acquainted  with  the  three  R's — reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic  —  imagined  that  he  had  altogether 
more  education  than  ought  to  be  wasted  in  raising 
potatoes  and  corn.  They  made  haste  to  get  into 
some  other  business.  Those  who  stayed  upon  the 
farm  envied  those  who  went  away. 

A  few  years  ago  the  times  were  prosperous, 
and  the  young  men  went  to  the  cities  to  enjoy  the 
fortunes  that  were  waiting  for  them.  They  wanted 
to    engage    in    something    that    promised    quick 


ABOUT  FARMING   IN  ILLINOIS.  405 

returns.  They  built  railways,  established  banks 
and  insurance  companies.  They  speculated  in 
stocks  in  Wall  Street,  and  gambled  in  grain  at 
Chicago.  They  became  rich.  They  lived  in 
palaces.  They  rode  in  carriages.  They  pitied 
their  poor  brothers  on  the  farms,  and  the  poor 
brothers  envied  them. 

But  time  has  brought  its  revenge.  The  farmers 
have  seen  the  railroad  president  a  bankrupt,  and 
the  road  in  the  hands  of  a  receiver.  They  have 
seen  the  bank  president  abscond,  and  the  insurance 
company  a  wrecked  and  ruined  fraud.  The  only 
solvent  people,  as  a  class,  the  only  independent 
people,  are  the  tillers  of  the  soil. 

Farming  must  be  made  more  attractive.  The 
comforts  of  the  town  must  be  added  to  the  beauty 
of  the  fields.  The  sociability  of  the  city  must  be 
rendered  possible  in  the  country. 

Farming  has  been  made  repulsive.  The  farm- 
ers have  been  unsociable  and  their  homes  have 
been  lonely.  They  have  been  wasteful  and  care- 
less.    They  have  not  been  proud  of  their  business. 

In  the  first  place,  farming  ought  to  be  reason- 
ably profitable.  The  farmers  have  not  attended  to 
their  own  interests.  They  have  been  robbed  and 
plundered  in  a  hundred  ways. 


4o6  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

No  farmer  can  afford  to  raise  corn  and  oats  and 
hay  to  sell.  He  should  sell  horses,  not  oats ;  sheep, 
cattle  and  pork,  not  corn.  He  should  make  every 
profit  possible  out  of  what  he  produces.  So  long 
as  the  farmers  of  Illinois  ship  their  corn  and  oats, 
so  long  they  will  be  poor,  — just  so  long  will  their 
farms  be  mortgaged  to  the  insurance  companies 
and  banks  of  the  East, — just  so  long  will  they  do 
the  work  and  others  reap  the  benefit, — just  so  long 
will  they  be  poor,  and  the  money  lenders  grow 
rich, — just  so  long  will  cunning  avarice  grasp  and 
hold  the  net  profits  of  honest  toil.  When  the 
farmers  of  the  West  ship  beef  and  pork  instead  of 
grain, —  when  we  manufacture  here, —  when  we 
cease  paying  tribute  to  others,  ours  will  be  the 
most  prosperous  country  in  the  world. 

Another  thing  —  It  is  just  as  cheap  to  raise  a 
good  as  a  poor  breed  of  cattle.  Scrubs  will  eat 
just  as  much  as  thoroughbreds.  If  you  are  not 
able  to  buy  Durhams  and  Alderneys,  you  can 
raise  the  corn  breed.  By  ''corn  breed"  I  mean 
the  cattle  that  have,  for  several  generations,  had 
enough  to  eat,  and  have  been  treated  with 
kindness.  Every  farmer  who  will  treat  his  cattle 
kindly,   and   feed   them   all  they   want,   will,   in  a 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  apj 

few  years,  have  blooded  stock  on  his  farm.  All 
blooded  stock  has  been  produced  in  this  way.  You 
can  raise  good  cattle  just  as  you  can  raise  good 
people.  If  you  wish  to  raise  a  good  boy  you  must 
give  him  plenty  to  eat,  and  treat  him  with  kindness. 
In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can  good  cattle 
or  good  people  be  produced. 

Another  thing — You  must  beautify  your  homes. 

When  I  was  a  farmer  it  was  not  fashionable  to 
set  out  trees,  nor  to  plant  vines. 

When  you  visited  the  farm  you  were  not  wel- 
comed by  flowers,  and  greeted  by  trees  loaded 
with  fruit.  Yellow  dogs  came  bounding  over  the 
tumbled  fence  like  wild  beasts.  There  is  no  sense 
— there  is  no  profit  in  such  a  life.  It  is  not  living. 
The  farmers  ought  to  beautify  their  homes.  There 
should  be  trees  and  grass  and  flowers  and  running 
vines.  Everything  should  be  kept  in  order — gates 
should  be  on  their  hinges,  and  about  all  there 
should  be  the  pleasant  air  of  thrift.  In  every 
house  there  should  be  a  bath-room.  The  bath  is  a 
civilizer,  a  refiner,  a  beautifier.  When  you  come 
from  the  fields  tired,  covered  with  dust,  nothing  is 
so  refreshing.  Above  all  things,  keep  clean.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  be  a  pig  in  order  to  raise  one.     In 


4o8  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS, 

the  cool  of  the  evening,  after  a  day  in  the  field,  put 
on  clean  clothes,  take  a  seat  under  the  trees,  'mid 
the  perfume  of  flowers,  surrounded  by  your  family, 
and  you  will  know  what  it  is  to  enjoy  life  like  a 
gentleman. 

In  no  part  of  the  globe  will  farming  pay  better 
than  in  Illinois.  You  are  in  the  best  portion  of  the 
earth.  From  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  there  is 
no  such  country  as  yours.  The  East  is  hard  and 
stony  ;  the  soil  is  stingy.  The  far  West  is  a  desert 
parched  and  barren,  dreary  and  desolate  as  perdi- 
tion would  be  with  the  fires  out.  It  is  better  to 
dig  wheat  and  corn  from  the  soil  than  gold.  Only 
a  few  days  ago,  I  was  where  they  wrench  the 
precious  metals  from  the  miserly  clutch  of  the 
rocks.  When  I  saw  the  mountains,  treeless,  shrub- 
less,  flowerless,  without  even  a  spire  of  grass,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  gold  had  the  same  effect  upon 
the  country  that  holds  it,  as  upon  the  man  who 
lives  and  labors  only  for  that.  It  affects  the  land 
as  it  does  the  man.  It  leaves  the  heart  barren 
without  a  flower  of  kindness — without  a  blossom 
hi  pity. 

The  farmer  in  Illinois  has  the  best  soil — the 
greatest  return  for  the  least  labor — more  leisure — 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  409 

more  time  for  enjoyment  than  any  other  farmer  in 
the  world.  His  hard  work  ceases  with  autumn. 
He  has  the  long  winters  in  which  to  become 
acquainted  with  his  family — with  his  neighbors — 
in  which  to  read  and  keep  abreast  with  the 
advanced  thought  of  his  day.  He  has  the  time  and 
means  for  self-culture.  He  has  more  time  than  the 
mechanic,  the  merchant  or  the  professional  man. 
If  the  farmer  is  not  well  informed  it  is  his  own 
fault.  Books  are  cheap,  and  every  farmer  can  have 
enough  to  give  him  the  outline  of  every  science, 
and  an  idea  of  all  that  has  been  accomplished  by 
man. 

In  many  respects  the  farmer  has  the  advantage 
of  the  mechanic.  In  our  time  we  have  plenty  of 
mechanics  but  no  tradesmen.  In  the  sub-division 
of  labor  we  have  a  thousand  men  working  upon 
different  parts  of  the  same  thing,  each  taught  in 
one  particular  branch,  and  in  only  one.  We  have, 
say,  in  a  shoe  factory,  hundreds  of  men,  but  not 
one  shoemaker.  It  takes  them  all,  assisted  by  a 
great  number  of  machines,  to  make  a  shoe.  Each 
does  a  particular  part,  and  not  one  of  them  knows 
the  entire  trade.  The  result  is  that  the  moment  the 
factory  shuts  down,  these  men  are  out  of  employ- 


4IO  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

ment.  Out  of  employment  means  out  of  bread — 
out  of  bread  means  famine  and  horror.  The 
mechanic  of  to-day  has  but  little  independence. 
His  prosperity  often  depends  upon  the  good  will  of 
one  man.  He  is  liable  to  be  discharged  for  a  look, 
for  a  word.  He  lays  by  but  little  for  his  declining 
years.     He  is,  at  the  best,  the  slave  of  capital. 

It  is  a  thousand  times  better  to  be  a  whole 
farmer  than  part  of  a  mechanic.  It  is  better  to  till 
the  ground  and  work  for  yourself  than  to  be  hired 
by  corporations.  Every  man  should  endeavor  to 
belong  to  himself. 

About  seven  hundred  years  ago,  Khayyam,  a 
Persian,  said:  "Why  should  a  man  who  possesses 
a  piece  of  bread  securing  life  for  two  days,  and 
who  has  a  cup  of  water  —  why  should  such  a  man 
be  commanded  by  another,  and  why  should  such  a 
man  serve  another?" 

Young  men  should  not  be  satisfied  with  a 
salary.  Do  not  mortgage  the  possibilities  of  your 
future.  Have  the  courage  to  take  life  as  it  comes, 
feast  or  famine.  Think  of  hunting  a  gold  mine  for 
a  dollar  a  day,  and  think  of  finding  one  for  another 
man.     How  would  you  feel  then? 

We  are  lacking  in  true  courage,  when,  for  fear 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  411 

of  the  future,  we  take  the  crusts  and  scraps  and 
niggardly  salaries  of  the  present.  I  had  a  thousand 
times  rather  have  a  farm  and  be  independent,  than 
to  be  President  of  the  United  States  without  inde- 
pendence, filled  with  doubt  and  trembling,  feeling 
of  the  popular  pulse,  resorting  to  art  and  artifice, 
enquiring  about  the  wind  of  opinion,  and  suc- 
ceeding at  last  in  losing  my  self-respect  without 
gaining  the  respect  of  others. 

Man  needs  more  manliness,  more  real  indepen- 
dence. We  must  take  care  of  ourselves.  This 
we  can  do  by  labor,  and  in  this  way  we  can 
preserve  our  independence.  We  should  try  and 
choose  that  business  or  profession  the  pursuit  of 
which  will  give  us  the  most  happiness.  Happiness 
is  wealth.  We  can  be  happy  without  being  rich — 
without  holding  office — without  being  famous.  I 
am  not  sure  that  we  can  be  happy  with  wealth, 
with  office,  or  with  fame. 

There  is  a  quiet  about  the  life  of  a  farmer,  and 
the  hope  of  a  serene  old  age,  that  no  other  business 
or  profession  can  promise.  A  professional  man  is 
doomed  sometime  to  feel  that  his  powers  are 
waning.  He  is  doomed  to  see  younger  and 
Stronger  men  pass  him  in  the  race  of  life.     He 


412  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

looks  forward  to  an  old  age  of  intellectual  medioc- 
rity. He  will  be  last  where  once  he  was  the  first. 
But  the  farmer  goes,  as  it  were,  into  partnership 
with  nature  —  he  lives  with  trees  and  flowers — 
he  breathes  the  sweet  air  of  the  fields.  There  is 
no  constant  and  frightful  strain  upon  his  mind. 
His  nights  are  filled  with  sleep  and  rest. 
He  watches  his  flocks  and  herds  as  they  feed 
upon  the  green  and  sunny  slopes.  He  hears  the 
pleasant  rain  falling  upon  the  waving  corn,  and  the 
trees  he  planted  in  youth  rustle  above  him  as  he 
plants  others  for  the  children  yet  to  be. 

Our  country  is  filled  with  the  idle  and  unem- 
ployed, and  the  great  question  asking  for  an 
answer  is:  What  shall  be  done  with  these  men? 
What  shall  these  men  do?  To  this  there  is  but 
one  answer:  They  must  cultivate  the  soil.  Farm- 
ing must  be  rendered  more  attractive.  Those  who 
work  the  land  must  have  an  honest  pride  in  theiif 
business.  They  must  educate  their  children  to 
cultivate  the  soil.  They  must  make  farming  easier, 
so  that  their  children  will  not  hate  it  —  so  that  they 
will  not  hate  it  themselves.  The  boys  must  not  be 
taught  that  tilling  the  ground  is  a  curse  and  almost 
a  disgrace.     They  must  not  suppose  that  education 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  413 

is  thrown  away  upon  them  unless  they  become 
ministers,  merchants,  lawyers,  doctors,  or  states- 
men. It  must  be  understood  that  education  can 
be  used  to  advantage  on  a  farm.  We  must  get  rid 
of  the  idea  that  a  little  learning  unfits  one  for  work. 
There  is  no  real  conflict  between  Latin  and  labor. 
There  are  hundreds  of  graduates  of  Yale  and 
Harvard  and  other  colleges,  who  are  agents  of 
sewing  machines,  solicitors  for  insurance,  clerks, 
copyists,  in  short,  performing  a  hundred  varieties 
of  menial  service.  They  seem  willing  to  do  any- 
thing that  is  not  regarded  as  work  —  anything 
that  can  be  done  in  a  town,  in  the  house,  in 
an  office,  but  they  avoid  farming  as  they  would  a 
leprosy.  Nearly  every  young  man  educated  in  this 
way  is  simply  ruined.  Such  an  education  ought  to 
be  called  ignorance.  It  is  a  thousand  times  better 
to  have  common  sense  without  education,  than 
education  without  the  sense.  Boys  and  girls 
should  be  educated  to  help  themselves.  They 
should  be  taught  that  it  is  disgraceful  to  be  idle, 
and  dishonorable  to  be  useless. 

I  say  again,  if  you  want  more  men  and  women 
on  the  farms,  something  must  be  done  to  make 
farm  life  pleasant.     One  great  difficulty  is  that  the 


414  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS, 

farm  is  lonely.  People  write  about  the  pleasures 
of  solitude,  but  they  are  found  only  in  books.  He 
who  lives  long  alone  becomes  insane.  A  hermit  is 
a  madman.  Without  friends  and  wife  and  child, 
there  is  nothing  left  worth  living  for.  The  unsocial 
are  the  enemies  of  joy.  They  are  filled  with 
egotism  and  envy,  with  vanity  and  hatred.  People 
who  live  much  alone  become  narrow  and  suspicious. 
They  are  apt  to  be  the  property  of  one  idea.  They 
begin  to  think  there  is  no  use  in  anything.  They 
look  upon  the  happiness  of  others  as  a  kind  of 
folly.  They  hate  joyous  folks,  because,  way  down 
in  their  hearts,  they  envy  them. 

In  our  country,  farm-life  is  too  lonely.  The 
farms  are  large,  and  neighbors  are  too  far  apart. 
In  these  days,  when  the  roads  are  filled  with 
"tramps,"  the  wives  and  children  need  protection. 
When  the  farmer  leaves  home  and  goes  to  some 
distant  field  to  work,  a  shadow  of  fear  is  upon  his 
heart  all  day,  and  a  like  shadow  rests  upon  all  at 
home. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  our  country  the 
pioneer  was  forced  to  take  his  family,  his  axe,  his 
dog  and  his  gun,  and  go  into  the  far  wild  forest, 
and   build    his   cabin   miles   and    miles   from   any 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  415 

neighbor.  He  saw  the  smoke  from  his  hearth  go 
up  alone  in  all  the  wide  and  lonely  sky. 

But  this  necessity  has  passed  away,  and  now, 
instead  of  living  so  far  apart  upon  the  lonely  farms, 
you  should  live  in  villages.  With  the  improved 
machinery  which  you  have  —  with  your  generous 
soil  —  with  your  markets  and  means  of  transporta- 
tion, you  can  now  afford  to  live  together. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  age  of  the  world  for 
the  farmer  to  rise  in  the  middle  of  the  night  and 
begin  his  work.  This  getting  up  so  early  in  the 
morning  is  a  relic  of  barbarism.  It  has  made 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  young  men  curse  the 
business.  There  is  no  need  of  getting  up  at  three 
or  four  o'clock  in  the  winter  morning.  The  farmer 
who  persists  in  doing  it  and  persists  in  dragging 
his  wife  and  children  from  their  beds  ought  to  be 
visited  by  a  missionary.  It  is  time  enough  to  rise 
after  the  sun  has  set  the  example.  For  what 
purpose  do  you  get  up?  To  feed  the  cattle? 
Why  not  feed  them  more  the  night  before  ?  It  is 
a  waste  of  life.  In  the  old  times  they  used  to  get 
up  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  go  to 
work  long  before  the  sun  had  risen  with  "  heal- 
ing upon  his  wings,"  and  as  a  just  punishment  they 


4i6  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

all  had  the  ague  ;  and  they  ought  to  have  it  now. 
The  man  who  cannot  get  a  living  upon  Illinois  soil 
without  rising  before  daylight  ought  to  starve. 
Eight  hours  a  day  is  enough  for  any  farmer  to 
work  except  in  harvest  time.  When  you  rise  at 
four  and  work  till  dark  what  is  life  worth  ?  Of 
what  use  are  all  the  improvements  in  farming  ?  Of 
what  use  is  all  the  improved  machinery  unless  it 
tends  to  give  the  farmer  a  little  more  leisure  ? 
What  is  harvesting  now,  compared  with  what 
it  was  in  the  old  time  ?  Think  of  the  days  of 
reaping,  of  cradling,  of  raking  and  binding  and 
mowing.  Think  of  threshing  with  the  flail  and 
winnowing  with  the  wind.  And  now  think  of  the 
reapers  and  mowers,  the  binders  and  threshing 
machines,  the  plows  and  cultivators,  upon  which 
the  farmer  rides  protected  from  the  sun.  If,  with 
all  these  advantages,  you  cannot  get  a  living  with- 
out rising  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  go  into  some 
other  business.  You  should  not  rob  your  families 
of  sleep.  Sleep  is  the  best  medicine  in  the  world. 
It  is  the  best  doctor  upon  the  earth.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  health  without  plenty  of  sleep. 
Sleep  until  you  are  thoroughly  rested  and  restored. 
When  you  work,  work ;  and  when  you  get  through 
take  a  good,  long,  and  refreshing  rest. 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  417 

You  should  live  in  villages,  so  that  you  can 
have  the  benefits  of  social  life.  You  can  have  a 
reading-room — you  can  take  the  best  papers  and 
magazines  —  you  can  have  plenty  of  books,  and 
each  one  can  have  the  benefit  of  them  all.  Some 
of  the  young  men  and  women  can  cultivate  music. 
You  can  have  social  gatherings — you  can  learn 
from  each  other — you  can  discuss  all  topics  of 
interest,  and  in  this  way  you  can  make  farming  a 
delightful  business.  You  must  keep  up  with  the 
age.  The  way  to  make  farming  respectable  is  for 
farmers  to  become  really  intelligent.  They  must 
live  intelligent  and  happy  lives.  They  must  know 
something  of  books  and  something  of  what  is  going 
on  in  the  world.  They  must  not  be  satisfied  with 
knowing  something  of  the  affairs  of  a  neighbor- 
hood and  nothing  about  the  rest  of  the  earth.  The 
business  must  be  made  attractive,  and  it  never  can 
be  until  the  farmer  has  prosperity,  intelligence  and 
leisure. 

Another  thing — I  am  a  believer  in  fashion.  It 
is  the  duty  of  every  woman  to  make  herself  as 
beautiful  and  attractive  as  she  possibly  can, 

**  Handsome  is  as  handsome  does,"  but  she  is 
much  handsomer    if    well    dressed.      Every    man 


4 1 8  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

should  look  his  very  best.  I  am  a  believer  in  good 
clothes.  The  time  never  ought  to  come  in  this 
country  when  you  can  tell  a  farmer's  wife  or 
daughter  simply  by  the  garments  she  wears.  I  say 
to  every  girl  and  woman,  no  matter  what  the 
material  of  your  dress  may  be,  no  matter  how 
cheap  and  coarse  it  is,  cut  it  and  make  it  in  the 
fashion.  I  believe  in  jewelry.  Some  people  look 
upon  it  as  barbaric,  but  in  my  judgment,  wearing 
jewelry  is  the  first  evidence  the  barbarian  gives  of 
a  wish  to  be  civilized.  To  adorn  ourselves  seems 
to  be  a  part  of  our  nature,  and  this  desire  seems  to 
be  everywhere  and  in  everything.  I  have  some- 
times thought  that  the  desire  for  beauty  covers  the 
earth  with  flowers.  It  is  this  desire  that  paints  the 
wings  of  moths,  tints  the  chamber  of  the  shell, 
and  gives  the  bird  its  plumage  and  its  song.  Oh 
daughters  and  wives,  if  you  would  be  loved,  adorn 
yourselves — if  you  would  be  adored,  be  beautiful! 
There  is  another  fault  common  with  the  farmers 
of  our  country — they  want  too  much  land.  You 
cannot,  at  present,  when  taxes  are  high,  afford  to 
own  land  that  you  do  not  cultivate.  Sell  it  and  let 
others  make  farms  and  homes.  In  this  way  what 
you   keep   will   be   enhanced   in   value.      Farmers 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  419 

ought  to  own  the  land  they  cultivate,  and  cultivate 
what  they  own.  Renters  can  hardly  be  called 
farmers.  There  can  be  no  such  thing  in  the  high- 
est sense  as  a  home  unless  you  own  it.  There 
must  be  an  incentive  to  plant  trees,  to  beautify  the 
grounds,  to  preserve  and  improve.  It  elevates  a 
man  to  own  a  home.  It  gives  a  certain  indepen- 
dence, a  force  of  character  that  is  obtained  in  no 
other  way.  A  man  without  a  home  feels  like  a 
passenger.  There  is  in  such  a  man  a  little  of  the 
vagrant.  Homes  make  patriots.  He  who  has  sat 
by  his  own  fireside  with  wife  and  children  will 
defend  it.  When  he  hears  the  word  country  pro- 
nounced, he  thinks  of  his  home. 

Few  men  have  been  patriotic  enough  to  shoul- 
der a  musket  in  defence  of  a  boarding  house. 

The  prosperity  and  glory  of  our  country  depend 
upon  the  number  of  our  people  who  are  the  owners 
of  homes.  Around  the  fireside  cluster  the  private 
and  the  public  virtues  of  our  race.  Raise  your 
sons  to  be  independent  through  labor — to  pursue 
some  business  for  themselves  and  upon  their  own 
account — to  be  self-reliant — to  act  upon  their  own 
responsibility,  and  to  take  the  consequences  like 
men.      Teach  them  above  all  things  to  be  good, 


420  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

true  and   tender   husbands  —  winners  of  love  and 
builders  of  homes. 

A  great  many  farmers  seem  to  think  that  they 
are  the  only  laborers  in  the  world.     This  is  a  very 
foolish  thing.     Farmers  cannot  get  along  without 
the   mechanic.     You    are   not  independent  of  the 
man  of  genius.     Your  prosperity  depends  upon  the 
inventor.     The  w^orld  advances  by  the  assistance  of 
all  laborers;  and* all  labor  is  under  obligations  to 
the   inventions  of  genius.     The  inventor  does  as 
much  for  agriculture  as  he  who  tills  the  soil.     All 
laboring  men  should  be  brothers.     You  are  in  part- 
nership with  the  mechanics  who  make  your  reapers, 
your  mowers  and  your  plows ;  and  you  should  take 
into   your   granges   all   thfe    men  who  make  their 
living  by  honest  labor.     The  laboring  people  should 
unite    and    should   protect  themselves    against   all 
idlers.     You  can  divide  mankind  into  two  classes : 
the  laborers  and  the  idlers,  the  supporters  and  the 
supported,  the  honest  and  the   dishonest.     Every 
man  is  dishonest  who  lives  upon  the  unpaid  labor 
of  others,  no  matter  if  he  occupies  a  throne.     All 
laborers  should  be  brothers.      The  laborers  should 
have  equal  rights  before  the  world  and  before  the 
law.     And  I   want  every  farmer  to  consider  every 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  421 

man  who  labors  either  with  hand  or  brain  as  his 
brother.  Until  genius  and  labor  formed  a  partner- 
ship there  was  no  such  thing  as  prosperity  among 
men.  Every  reaper  and  mower,  every  agricultural 
implement,  has  elevated  the  work  of  the  farmer, 
and  his  vocation  grows  grander  with  every  inven- 
tion. In  the  olden  time  the  agriculturist  was 
ignorant ;  he  knew  nothing  of  machinery,  he  was 
the  slave  of  superstition.  He  was  always  trying  to 
appease  some  imaginary  power  by  fasting  and 
prayer.  He  supposed  that  some  being  actuated 
by  malice,  sent  the  untimely  frost,  or.  swept  away 
with  the  wild  wind  his  rude  abode.  To  him  the 
seasons  were  mysteries.  The  thunder  told  him  of 
an  enraged  god — the  barren  fields  of  the  vengeance 
of  heaven.  The  tiller  of  the  soil  lived  in  perpetual 
and  abject  fear.  He  knew  nothing  of  mechanics, 
nothing  of  order,  nothing  of  law,  nothing  of  cause 
and  effect.  He  was  a  superstitious  savage.  He 
invented  prayers  instead  of  plows,  creeds  instead  of 
reapers  and  mowers.  He  was  unable  to  devote  all 
his  time  to  the  gods,  and  so  he  hired  others  to 
assist  him,  and  for  their  influence  with  the  gentle- 
men supposed  to  control  the  weather,  he  gave 
one-tenth  of  all  he  could  produce. 


422  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

The  farmer  has  been  elevated  through  science 
and  he  should  not  forget  the  debt  he  owes  to  the 
mechanic,  to  the  inventor,  to  the  thinker.  He 
should  remember  that  all  laborers  belong  to  the 
same  grand  family — that  they  are  the  real  kings 
and  queens,  the  only  true  nobility. 

Another  idea  entertained  by  most  farmers  is 
that  they  are  in  some  mysterious  way  oppressed 
by  every  other  kind  of  business  —  that  they  are 
devoured  by  monopolies,  especially  by  railroads. 

Of  course,  the  railroads  are  indebted  to  the 
farmers  for  their  prosperity,  and  the  farmers  are 
indebted  to  the  railroads.  Without  them  Illinois 
would  be  almost  worthless. 

A  few  years  ago  you  endeavored  to  regulate 
the  charges  of  railroad  companies.  The  principal 
complaint  you  had  was  that  they  charged  too  much 
for  the  transportation  of  corn  and  other  cereals  to 
the  East.  You  should  remember  that  all  freights 
are  paid  by  the  consumer ;  and  that  it  made  little 
difference  to  you  what  the  railroad  charged  for 
transportation  to  the  East,  as  that  transportation 
had  to  be  paid  by  the  consumers  of  the  grain. 
You  were  really  interested  in  transportation  from 
the  East  to  the  West  and  in  local  freights.     The 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  423 

result  is  that  while  you  have  put  down  through 
freights  you  have  not  succeeded  so  well  in  local 
freights.  The  exact  opposite  should  be  the  policy 
of  Illinois.  Put  down  local  freights;  put  them 
down,  if  you  can,  to  the  lowest  possible  figure,  and 
let  through  rates  take  care  of  themselves.  If  all 
the  corn  raised  in  Illinois  could  be  transported  to 
New  York  absolutely  free,  it  would  enhance  but 
little  the  price  that  you  would  receive.  What  we 
want  is  the  lowest  possible  local  rate.  Instead  of 
this  you  have  simply  succeeded  in  helping  the  East 
at  the  expense  of  the  West.  The  railroads  are 
your  friends.  They  are  your  partners.  They  can 
prosper  only  where  the  country  through  which 
they  run  prospers.  All  intelligent  railroad  men 
know  this.  They  know  that  present  robbery  is 
future  bankruptcy.  They  know  that  the  interest 
of  the  farmer  and  of  the  railroad  is  the  same. 
We  must  have  railroads.  What  can  we  do  with- 
out them  ? 

When  we  had  no  railroads,  we  drew,  as  I  said 
before,  our  grain  two  hundred  miles  to  market. 

In  those  days  the  farmers  did  not  stop  at  hotels. 
They  slept  under  their  wagons — took  with  them 
their    food— fried    their    own    bacon,   made    their 


424  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

coffee,  and  ate  their  meals  in  the  snow  and  rain. 
Those  were  the  days  when  they  received  ten  cents 
a  bushel  for  corn — when  they  sold  four  bushels  of 
potatoes  for  a  quarter — thirty-three  dozen  eggs 
for  a  dollar,  and  a  hundred  pounds  of  pork  for  a 
dollar  and  a  half. 

What  has  made  the  difference  ? 
The  railroads  came  to  your  door  and  they 
brought  with  them  the  markets  of  the  world. 
They  brought  New  York  and  Liverpool  and  Lon- 
don into  Illinois,  and  the  State  has  been  clothed 
with  prosperity  as  with  a  mantle.  It  is  the  interest 
of  the  farmer  to  protect  every  great  interest  in  the 
State.  You  should  feel  proud  that  Illinois  has 
more  railroads  than  any  other  State  in  this  Union. 
Her  main  tracks  and  side  tracks  would  furnish  iron 
enough  to  belt  the  globe.  In  Illinois  there  are  ten 
thousand  miles  of  railways.  In  these  iron  high- 
ways more  than  three  hundred  million  dollars  have 
been  invested  —  a  sum  equal  to  ten  times  the 
original  cost  of  all  the  land  in  the  State.  To  make 
war  upon  the  railroads  is  a  short-sighted  and 
suicidal  policy.  They  should  be  treated  fairly  and 
should  be  taxed  by  the  same  standard  that  farms 
are  taxed,  and  in  no  other  way.     If  we  wish  to 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  425 

prosper  we  must  act  together,  and  we  must  see  to 
it  that  every  form  of  labor  is  protected. 

There  has  been  a  long  period  of  depression  in 
all  business.  The  farmers  have  suffered  least  of 
all.  Your  land  is  just  as  rich  and  productive  as 
ever.  Prices  have  been  reasonable.  The  towns 
and  cities  have  suffered.  Stocks  and  bonds  have 
shrunk  from  par  to  worthless  paper.  Princes  have 
become  paupers,  and  bankers,  merchants  and 
millionaires  have  passed  into  the  oblivion  of  bank- 
ruptcy. The  period  of  depression  is  slowly  passing 
away,  and  we  are  entering  upon  better  times. 

A  great  many  people  say  that  a  scarcity  of 
money  is  our  only  difficulty.  In  my  opinion  we 
have  money  enough,  but  we  lack  confidence  in 
each  other  and  in  the  future. 

There  has  been  so  much  dishonesty,  there  have 
been  so  many  failures,  that  the  people  are  afraid  to 
trust  anybody.  There  is  plenty  of  money,  but 
there  seems  to  be  a  scarcity  of  business.  If  you 
were  to  go  to  the  owner  of  a  ferry,  and,  upon 
seeing  his  boat  lying  high  and  dry  on  the  shore, 
should  say,  "There  is  a  superabundance  of  ferry- 
boat," he  would  probably  reply,  "  No,  but  there  is 
a  scarcity  of  water."     So  with  us  there  is  not  a 


426  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLIA  OIS. 

scarcity  of  money,  but  there  is  a  scarcity  of  busi' 
ness.  And  this  scarcity  springs  from  lack  of 
confidence  in  one  another.  So  many  presidents  of 
savings  banks,  even  those  belonging  to  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  run  off  with  the  funds ; 
so  many  railroad  and  insurance  companies  are  in 
the  hands  of  receivers;  there  is  so  much  bank- 
ruptcy on  every  hand,  that  all  capital  is  held  in  the 
nervous  clutch  of  fear.  Slowly,  but  surely  we  are 
coming  back  to  honest  methods  in  business.  Con- 
fidence will  return,  and  then  enterprise  will  unlock 
the  safe  and  money  will  again  circulate  as  of  yore ; 
the  dollars  will  leave  their  hiding  places  and  every 
one  will  be  seeking  investment. 

For  my  part,  I  do  not  ask  any  interference  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  except  to  undo  the 
wrong  it  has  done.  I  do  not  ask  that  money  be 
made  out  of  nothing.  I  do  not  ask  for  the  pros- 
perity born  of  paper.  But  I  do  ask  for  the  remon- 
etization  of  silver.  Silver  was  demonetized  by 
fraud.  It  was  an  imposition  upon  every  solvent 
man;  a  fraud  upon  every  honest  debtor  in  the 
United  States.  It  assassinated  labor.  It  was  done 
in  the  interest  of  avarice  and  greed,  and  should  be 
undone  by  honest  men. 


AB  O  UT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  427 

The  farmers  should  vote  only  for  such  men  as 
are  able  and  willing  to  guard  and  advance  the 
interests  of  labor.  We  should  know  better  than  to 
vote  for  men  who  will  deliberately  put  a  tariff  of 
three  dollars  a  thousand  upon  Canada  lumber, 
when  every  farmer  in  Illinois  is  a  purchaser  of 
lumber.  People  who  live  upon  the  prairies  ought 
to  vote  for  cheap  lumber.  We  should  protect 
ourselves.  We  ought  to  have  intelligence  enough 
to  know  what  we  want  and  how  to  get  it.  The 
real  laboring  men  of  this  country  can  succeed  if 
they  are  united.  By  laboring  men,  I  do  not  mean 
only  the  farmers.  I  mean  all  who  contribute  in 
some  way  to  the  general  welfare.  They  should 
forget  prejudices  and  party  names,  and  remember 
only  the  best  interests  of  the  people.  Let  us  see 
if  we  cannot,  in  Illinois,  protect  every  department 
of  industry.  Let  us  see  if  all  property  cannot  be 
protected  alike  and  taxed  alike,  whether  owned  by 
individuals  or  corporations. 

Where  industry  creates  and  justice  protects, 
prosperity  dwells. 

Let  me  tell  you  something  more  about  Illinois  -. 
We  have  fifty-six  thousand  square  miles  of  land — 
nearly  thirty-six  million  acres.     Upon  these  plains 


428  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

we  can  raise  enough  to  feed  and  clothe  twenty 
million  people.  Beneath  these  prairies  were  hidden 
millions  of  ages  ago,  by  that  old  miser,  the  sun, 
thirty-six  thousand  square  miles  of  coal.  The 
aggregate  thickness  of  these  veins  Is  at  least  fifteen 
feet.  Think  of  a  column  of  coal  one  mile  square 
and  one  hundred  miles  high !  All  this  came  from 
the  sun.  What  a  sunbeam  such  a  column  would 
be !  Think  of  the  engines  and  machines  this  coal 
will  run  and  turn  and  whirl!  Think  of  all  this 
force,  willed  and  left  to  us  by  the  dead  morning  of 
the  world!  Think  of  the  firesides  of  the  future 
around  which  will  sit  the  fathers,  mothers  and 
children  of  the  years  to  be  I  Think  of  the  sweet 
and  happy  faces,  the  loving  and  tender  eyes  that 
will  glow  and  gleam  in  the  sacred  light  of  all  these 
flames  I 

We  have  the  best  country  in  the  world,  and 
Illinois  is  the  best  State  in  that  country.  Is  there 
any  reason  that  our  farmers  should  not  be  prosper- 
ous and  happy  men  ?  They  have  every  advantage, 
and  within  their  reach  are  all  the  comforts  and 
conveniences  of  life. 

Do  not  get  the  land  fever  and  think  you  must 
buy  all  that  joins  you.     Get  out  of  debt  as  soon  as 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  429 

you  possibly  can.  A  mortgage  casts  a  shadow  on 
the  sunniest  field.  There  is  no  business  under  the 
sun  that  can  pay  ten  per  cent. 

Ainsworth  R.  Spofford  gives  the  following  facts 
about  interest:  "One  dollar  loaned  for  one  hundred 
years  at  ^six  per  cent.,  with  the  interest  collected 
annually  and  added  to  the  principal,  will  amount  to 
three  hundred  and  forty  dollars.  At  eight  per 
cent,  it  amounts  to  two  thousand  two  hundred  and 
three  dollars.  At  three  per  cent,  it  amounts  only 
to  nineteen  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents.  At  ten 
per  cent,  it  is  thirteen  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
nine  dollars,  or  about  seven  hundred  times  as  much. 
At  twelve  per  cent,  it  amounts  to  eighty-four  thou- 
sand and  seventy-five  dollars,  or  more  than  four 
thousand  times  as  much.  At  eighteen  per  cent,  it 
amounts  to  fifteen  million  one  hundred  and  forty- 
five  thousand  and  seven  dollars.  At  twenty-four 
per  cent,  (which  we  sometimes  hear  talked  of)  it 
reaches  the  enormous  sum  of  two  billion  five  hund- 
red and  fifty-one  million  seven  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  thousand  four  hundred  and  four  dollars." 

One  dollar  at  compound  interest,  at  twenty-four 
per  cent.,  for  one  hundred  years,  would  produce  a 
sum  equal  to  our  national  debt. 


430  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

Interest  eats  night  and  day,  and  the  more  it 
eats  the  hungrier  it  grows.  The  farmer  in  debt, 
lying  awake  at  night,  can,  if  he  listens,  hear  it 
gnaw.  If  he  owes  nothing,  he  can  hear  his  corn 
grow.  Get  out  of  debt  as  soon  as  you  possibly 
can.  You  have  supported  idle  avarice  and  lazy 
economy  long  enough. 

Above  all  let  every  farmer  treat  his  wife  and 
children  with  infinite  kindness.  Give  your  sons 
and  daughters  every  advantage  within  your  power. 
In  the  air  of  kindness  they  will  grow  about  you 
like  flowers.  They  will  fill  your  homes  with  sun- 
shine and  all  your  years  with  joy.  Do  not  try  to 
rule  by  force.  A  blow  from  a  parent  leaves  a  scar 
on  the  soul.  I  should  feel  ashamed  to  die  sur- 
rounded by  children  I  had  whipped.  Think  of 
feeling  upon  your  dying  lips  the  kiss  of  a  child  you 
had  struck. 

See  to  it  that  your  wife  has  every  convenience. 
Make  her  life  worth  living.  Never  allov/  her  to 
become  a  servant.  Wives,  weary  and  worn, 
mothers,  wrinkled  and  bent  before  their  time,  fill 
homes  with  grief  and  shame.  If  you  are  not  able 
to  hire  help  for  your  wives,  help  them  yourselves. 
See  that  they  have  the  best  utensils  to  work  with. 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  431 

Women  cannot  create  things  by  magic.  Have 
plenty  of  wood  and  coal — good  cellars  and  plenty 
in  them.  Have  cisterns,  so  that  you  can  have 
plenty  of  rain  water  for  washing.  Do  not  rely  on 
a  barrel  and  a  board.  When  the  rain  comes  the 
board  will  be  lost  or  the  hoops  will  be  off  the 
barrel. 

Farmers  should  live  like  princes.  Eat  the  best 
things  you  raise  and  sell  the  rest.  Have  good 
things  to  cook  and  good  things  to  cook  with.  Of 
all  people  in  our  country,  you  should  live  the  best. 
Throw  your  miserable  little  stoves  out  of  the  win- 
dow. Get  ranges,  and  have  them  so  built  that 
your  wife  need  not  burn  her  face  off  to  get  you  a 
breakfast.  Do  not  make  her  cook  in  a  kitchen  hot 
as  the  orthodox  perdition.  The  beef,  not  the  cook, 
should  be  roasted.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  have 
things  convenient  and  right  as  to  have  them  any 
other  way. 

Cooking  is  one  of  the  fine  arts.  Give  your 
wives  and  daughters  things  to  cook,  and  things 
to  cook  with,  and  they  will  soon  become  most 
excellent  cooks.  Good  cooking  is  the  basis  of 
civilization.  The  man  whose  arteries  and  veins  are 
filled   with   rich    blood    made   of  good    and   well 


432  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

cooked  food,  has  pluck,  courage,  endurance  and 
and  noble  impulses.  The  inventor  of  a  good  soup 
did  more  for  his  race  than  the  maker  of  any  creed. 
The  doctrines  of  total  depravity  and  endless  pun- 
ishment were  born  of  bad  cooking  and  dyspepsia. 
Remember  that  your  wife  should  have  the  things 
to  cook  with. 

In  the  good  old  days  there  would  be  eleven 
children  in  the  family  and  only  one  skillet.  Every- 
thing was  broken  or  cracked  or  loaned  or  lost. 

There  ought  to  be  a  law  making  it  a  crime, 
punishable  by  imprisonment,  to  fry  beefsteak. 
Broil  it ;  it  is  just  as  easy,  and  when  broiled  it  is 
delicious.  Fried  beefsteak  is  not  fit  for  a  wild 
beast.  You  can  broil  even  on  a  stove.  Shut  the 
front  damper  —  open  the  back  one  —  then  takeoff 
a  griddle.  There  will  then  be  a  draft  downwards 
through  this  opening.  Put  on  your  steak,  using  a 
wire  broiler,  and  not  a  particle  of  smoke  will  touch 
it,  for  the  reason  that  the  smoke  goes  down.  If 
you  try  to  broil  it  with  the  front  damper  open,  the 
smoke  will  rise.  For  broiling,  coal,  even  soft  coal, 
makes  a  better  fire  than  wood. 

There  is  no  reason  why  farmers  should  not  have 
fresh  meat  all  the  year  round.     There  is  certainly 


AB  O  UT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  M  3 

no  sense  in  stuffing  yourself  full  of  salt  meat  every 
morning,  and  making  a  well  or  a  cistern  of  your 
stomach  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  Every  farmer 
should  have  an  ice  house.  Upon  or  near  every 
farm  is  some  stream  from  which  plenty  of  ice  can 
be  obtained,  and  the  long  summer  days  made  de- 
lightful. Dr.  Draper,  one  of  the  world's  greatest 
scientists,  says  that  ice  water  is  healthy,  and  that 
it  has  done  away  with  many  of  the  low  forms  of 
fever  in  the  great  cities.  Ice  has  become  one  of 
the  necessaries  of  civilized  life,  and  without  it  there 
is  very  little  comfort. 

Make  your  homes  pleasant.  Have  your  houses 
warm  and  comfortable  for  the  winter.  Do  not  build 
a  story-and-a-half  house.  The  half  story  is  sim- 
ply an  oven  in  which,  during  the  summer,  you  will 
bake  every  night,  and  feel  in  the  morning  as  though 
only  the  rind  of  yourself  was  left. 

Decorate  your  rooms,  even  if  you  do  so  with 
cheap  engravings.  The  cheapest  are  far  better 
than  none.  Have  books  —  have  papers,  and  read 
them.  You  have  more  leisure  than  the  dwellers  in 
cities.  Beautify  your  grounds  with  plants  and  flow- 
ers and  vines.  Have  good  gardens.  Remember 
that  everything  of  beauty  tends  to  the  elevation  of 


434  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

man.  Every  little  morning-glory  whose  purple 
bosom  is  thrilled  with  the  amorous  kisses  of  the 
sun,  tends  to  put  a  blossom  in  your  heart.  Do  not 
judge  of  the  value  of  everything  by  the  market 
reports.  Every  flower  about  a  house  certifies  to 
the  refinement  of  somebody.  Every  vine  climbing 
and  blossoming,  tells  of  love  and  joy. 

Make  your  houses  comfortable.  Do  not  huddle 
together  in  a  little  room  around  a  red-hot  stove, 
with  every  window  fastened  down.  Do  not  live  in 
this  poisoned  atmosphere,  and  then,  when  one  of 
your  children  dies,  put  a  piece  in  the  papers  com- 
mencing with,  "Whereas,  it  has  pleased  divine 
Providence  to  remove  from  our  midst — ."  Have 
plenty  of  air,  and  plenty  of  warmth.  Comfort  is 
health.  Do  not  imagine  anything  is  unhealthy 
simply  because  it  is  pleasant.  That  is  an  old  and 
foolish  idea. 

Let  your  children  sleep.  Do  not  drag  them 
from  their  beds  in  the  darkness  of  night.  Do  not 
compel  them  to  associate  all  that  is  tiresome,  irk- 
some and  dreadful  with  cultivating  the  soil.  In 
this  way  you  bring  farming  into  hatred  and  disre- 
pute. Treat  your  children  with  infinite  kindness  — 
treat  them  as  equals.     There  is  no  happiness  in  a 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  435 

home  not  filled  with  love.  Where  the  husband 
hates  his  wife — where  the  wife  hates  the  husband; 
where  children  hate  their  parents  and  each  other — 
there  is  a  hell  upon  earth. 

There  is  no  reason  why  farmers  should  not  be 
the  kindest  and  most  cultivated  of  men.  There  is 
nothing  in  plowing  the  fields  to  make  men  cross, 
cruel  and  crabbed.  To  look  upon  the  sunny  slopes 
covered  with  daisies  does  not  tend  to  make  men 
unjust.  Whoever  labors  for  the  happiness  of  those 
he  loves,  elevates  himself,  no  matter  whether  he 
works  in  the  dark  and  dreary  shops,  or  in  the 
perfumed  fields.  To  work  for  others  is,  in  reality, 
the  only  way  in  which  a  man  can  work  for  himself. 
Selfishness  is  ignorance.  Speculators  cannot  make 
unless  somebody  loses.  In  the  realm  of  specula- 
tion, every  success  has  at  least  one  victim.  The 
harvest  reaped  by  the  farmer  benefits  all  and  injures 
none.  For  him  to  succeed,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
some  one  should  fail.  The  same  is  true  of  all 
producers  —  of  all  laborers. 

I  can  imagine  no  condition  that  carries  with  it 
such  a  promise  of  joy  as  that  of  the  farmer  in 
the  early  winter.  He  has  his  cellar  filled  —  he  has 
made  every  preparation  for  the  days  of  snow  and 


436  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

storm — he  looks  forward  to  three  months  of  ease 
and  rest;  to  three  months  of  fireside  -  content ; 
three  months  with  wife  and  children ;  three  months 
of  long,  delightful  evenings ;  three  months  of  home  ; 
three  months  of  solid  comfort. 

When  the  life  of  the  farmer  is  such  as  I  have 
described,  the  cities  and  towns  will  not  be  filled 
with  want — the  streets  will  not  be  crowded  with 
wrecked  rogues,  broken  bankers,  and  bankrupt 
speculators.  The  fields  will  be  tilled,  and  country- 
villages,  almost  hidden  by  trees  and  vines  and 
flowers,  filled  with  industrious  and  happy  people, 
will  nestle  in  every  vale  and  gleam  like  gems  on 
every  plain. 

The  idea  must  be  done  away  with  that  there  is 
something  intellectually  degrading  in  cultivating 
the  soil.  Nothing  can  be  nobler  than  to  be  useful. 
Idleness  should  not  be  respectable. 

If  farmers  will  cultivate  well,  and  without  waste ; 
if  they  will  so  build  that  their  houses  will  be  warm 
in  winter  and  cool  in  summer ;  if  they  will  plant 
trees  and  beautify  their  homes ;  if  they  will  occupy 
their  leisure  in  reading,  in  thinking,  in  improving 
their  minds  and  in  devising  ways  and  means  to 
make   their   business   profitable   and   pleasant;    if 


ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS.  437 

they  will  live  nearer  together  and  cultivate  socia- 
bility; if  they  will  come  together  often;  if  they 
will  have  reading  rooms  and  cultivate  music;  if 
they  will  have  bath-rooms,  ice-houses  and  good 
gardens ;  if  their  wives  can  have  an  easy  time ;  if 
their  sons  and  daughters  can  have  an  opportunity 
to  keep  in  line  with  the  thoughts  and  dis- 
coveries of  the  world ;  if  the  nights  can  be  taken 
for  sleep  and  the  evenings  for  enjoyment,  every- 
body will  be  in  love  with  the  fields.  Happiness 
should  be  the  object  of  life,  and  if  life  on  the  farm 
can  be  made  really  happy,  the  children  will  grow 
up  in  love  with  the  meadows,  the  streams,  the 
woods  and  the  old  home.  Around  the  farm  will 
cling  and  cluster  the  happy  memories  of  the  de- 
lighful  years. 

Remember,  I  pray  you,  that  you  are  in  partner- 
ship with  all  labor — that  you  should  join  hands 
with  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  toil,  and  that  all 
who  work  belong  to  the  same  noble  family. 

For  my  part,  I  envy  the  man  who  has  lived  on 
the  same  broad  acres  from  his  boyhood,  who  culti- 
vates the  fields  where  in  youth  he  played,  and  lives 
where  his  father  lived  and  died. 

I  can  imagine  no  sweeter  way  to  end  one's  life 


438  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS, 

than  in  the  quiet  of  the  country,  out  of  the  mad 
race  for  money,  place  and  power — far  from  the 
demands  of  business  —  out  of  the  dusty  highway 
where  fools  struggle  and  strive  for  the  hollow  praise 
of  other  fools. 

Surrounded  by  pleasant  fields  and  faithful 
friends,  by  those  I  have  loved,  I  hope  to  end  my 
days.  And  this  I  hope  may  be  the  lot  of  all  who 
hear  my  voice.  I  hope  that  you,  in  the  country,  in 
houses  covered  with  vines  and  clothed  with  flowers, 
looking  from  the  open  window  upon  rustling  fields 
of  corn  and  wheat,  over  which  will  run  the  sunshine 
and  the  shadow,  surrounded  by  those  whose  lives 
you  have  filled  with  joy,  will  pass  away  serenely  as 
the  Autumn  dies. 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO 
BE  SAVED? 


PREFACE. 


If  what  is  known  as  the  Christian  ReHgion  is 
true,  nothing  can  be  more  wonderful  than  the  fact 
that  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  say  nothing  about 
'•  salvation  by  faith  ; "  that  they  do  not  even  hint  at 
the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  and  are  as  silent  as 
empty  tombs  as  to  the  necessity  of  believing  any- 
thing to  secure  happiness  in  this  world  or  another. 

For  a  good  many  years  it  has  been  claimed  that 
the  writers  of  these  gospels  knew  something  about 
the  teachings  of  Christ,  and  had,  at  least,  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  salvation.  It  now 
seems  to  be  substantiated  that  the  early  Christians 
did  not  place  implicit  confidence  in  the  gospels,  and 
did  not  hesitate  to  make  such  changes  and  additions 
as  they  thought  proper.  Such  changes  and  addi- 
tions are  about  the  only  passages  in  the  New  Test- 
ament that  the   Evangelical  Churches  now  consider 

(441) 


442  PREFACE. 

sacred.  That  portion  of  the  last  chapter  of  Mark, 
in  which  unbeHevers  are  so  cheerfully  and  promptly 
damned,  has  been  shown  to  be  an  interpolation,  and 
it  is  asserted  that  in  the  revised  edition  of  the  New 
Testament,  soon  to  be  issued,  the  infamous  passages 
will  not  appear.  With  these  expunged,  there  is  not 
one  word  in  Matthew,  Mark,  or  Luke,  even  tend- 
ing to  show  that  belief  in  Christ  has,  or  can  have, 
any  effect  upon  the  destiny  of  the  soul. 

The  four  gospels  are  the  four  corner-stones  upon 
which  rests  the  fabric  of  orthodox  Christianity. 
Three  of  these  stones  have  crumbled,  and  the  fourth 
is  not  likely  to  outlast  this  generation.  The  gospel 
of  John  cannot  alone  uphold  the  infinite  absurdity 
of  vicarious  virtue  and  vice,  and  it  cannot,  without 
the  aid  of  "  interpolation,"  sustain  the  illogical  and 
immoral  dogma  of  salvation  by  faith.  These  fright- 
ful doctrines  must  be  abandoned;  the  miraculous 
must  be  given  up,  the  wonderful  stories  must  be  ex- 
punged, and  from  the  creed  of  noble  deeds  the 
forgeries  of  superstition  must  be  blotted  out.  From 
the  temple  of  Morality  and  Truth  —  from  the  great 
windows  towards  the  sun — the  parasitic  and  poi- 
sonous vines  of  faith  and  fable  must  be  torn. 

The  church  will  be  compelled  at  last  to  rest  its 


PREFACE.  443 

case,  not  upon  the  wonders  Christ  is  said  to  have 
performed,  but  upon  the  system  of  morality  he 
taught.  All  the  miracles,  including  the  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension,  are,  when  compared  with  por- 
tions of  the  "  Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  but  dust 
and  darkness. 

The  careful  reader  of  the  New  Testament  will 
find  three  Christs  described :  —  One  who  wished  to 
preserve  Judaism  —  one  who  wished  to  reform  it, 
and  one  who   built   a   system    of  his   own.      The 
apostles    and    their     disciples,    utterly    unable    to 
comprehend  a  religion  that  did  away  with  sacrifices 
churches,  priests,  and  creeds,  constructed  a  Chris 
tianity  for  themselves,  so  that  the  orthodox  church 
es  of  to-day  rest  — firsts  upon  what  Christ  endeav 
ored  to  destroy  —  second^  upon  what  he  nerer  said 
and,  thirds  upon  a  misunderstanding  of  what  he  did 
say. 

If  a  certain  belief  is  necessary  to  insure  the  sal- 
vation of  the  soul,  the  church  ought  to  explain,  and 
without  any  unnecessary  delay,  why  such  an  infi- 
nitely important  fact  was  utterly  ignored  by  Mat- 
thew, Mark  and  Luke.  There  are  only  two  expla- 
nations possible.  Either  belief  is  unnecessary,  or 
the  writers  of  these  three  gospels  did  not  under- 


444 


PREFACE. 


stand  the  Christian  system.  The  "  sacredness  "  of 
the  subject  cannot  longer  hide  the  absurdity  of  the 
"  scheme  of  salvation,"  nor  the  failure  of  Matthew, 
Mark  and  Luke  to  mention,  what  is  now  claimed  to 
have  been,  the  entire  mission  of  Christ.  The 
church  must  take  from  the  New  Testament  the 
supernatural ;  the  idea  that  an  intellectual  conviction 
can  subject  an  honest  man  to  eternal  pain  —  the 
awful  doctrine  that  the  innocent  can  justly  suffer 
for  the  guilty,  and  allow  the  remainder  to  be  dis- 
cussed, denied  or  believed  without  punishment  and 
without  reward.  No  one  will  object  to  the  preach- 
ing of  kindness,  honesty  and  justice.  To  preach 
less  is  a  crime,  and  to  practice  more  is  impossible. 
There  is  one  thing  that  ought  to  be  again  im- 
pressed upon  the  average  theologian,  and  that  is  the 
utter  futility  of  trying  to  answer  arguments  with 
personal  abuse.  It  should  be  understood  once  for 
all  that  these  questions  are  in  no  sense  personal.  If 
it  should  turn  out  that  all  the  professed  Christians  in 
the  world  are  sinless  saints,  the  question  of  how 
Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  came  to  say  nothing 
about  the  atonement  and  the  scheme  of  salvation  by 
faith,  would  still  be  asked.  And  if  it  should  then 
be  shown  that  all  the  doubters,  deists,  and  atheists. 


PREFACE.  445 

are    vile    and   vicious    wretches,   the   question   still 
would  wait  for  a  reply. 

The  origin  of  all  religions,  creeds,  and  sacred 
books,  is  substantially  the  same,  and  the  history  of 
one,  is,  in  the  main,  the  history  of  all.  Thus  far 
these  religions  have  been  the  mistaken  explanations 
of  our  surroundings.  The  appearances  of  nature 
have  imposed  upon  the  ignorance  and  fear  of  man. 
But  back  of  all  honest  creeds  was,  and  is,  the  desire 
to  know,  to  understand,  and  to  explain,  and  that 
desire  will,  as  I  most  fervently  hope  and  earnestly 
believe,  be  gratified  at  last  by  the  discovery  of  the 
truth.  Until  then,  let  us  bear  with  the  theories, 
hopes,  dreams,  mistakes,  and  honest  thoughts  of  all. 

Robert  G.  Ingersoll. 

Washington,  D.  C, 
October,  1880. 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO 
BE  SAVED? 


"The  Nuremberg  Man  was  operated  by  a  combination 
OF  pipes  and  levers,  and  though  he  could  breathe 
and  digest  perfectly,  and  even  reason  as  well  as 

MOST  theologians,  WAS  MADE  OF  NOTHING  BUT  WOOD 
AND  LEATHER." 

I. 

THE  whole  world  has  been  filled  with  fear. 
Ignorance  has  been  the  refuge  of  the  soul. 
For  thousands  of  years  the  intellectual  ocean  was 
ravaged  by  the  buccaneers  of  reason.  Pious  souls 
clung  to  the  shore  and  looked  at  the  lighthouse. 
The  seas  were  filled  with  monsters  and  the  islands 
with  sirens.  The  people  were  driven  in  the  middle 
of  a  narrow  road  while  priests  went  before,  beating 
the  hedges  on  either  side  to  frighten  the  robbers 
from  their  lairs.  The  poor  followers  seeing  no 
robbers,  thanked  their  brave  leaders  with  all  their 
hearts.  (447) 


448  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVEDT 

Huddled  in  folds  they  listened  with  wide  eyes 
while  the  shepherds  told  of  ravening  wolves.  With 
great  gladness  they  exchanged  their  fleeces  for 
security.  Shorn  and  shivering,  they  had  the  hap- 
piness of  seeing  their  protectors  comfortable  and 
warm. 

Through  all  the  years,  those  who  plowed 
divided  with  those  who  prayed.  Wicked  industry 
supported  pious  idleness,  the  hut  gave  to  the 
cathedral,  and  frightened  poverty  gave  even  its 
rags  to  buy  a  robe  for  hypocrisy. 

Fear  is  the  dungeon  of  the  mind,  and  supersti- 
tion is  a  dagger  with  which  hypocrisy  assassinates 
the  soul.  Courage  is  liberty.  I  am  in  favor  of 
absolute  freedom  of  thought.  In  the  realm  of 
mind  every  one  is  monarch;  every  one  is  robed, 
sceptered,  and  crowned,  and  every  one  wears  the 
purple  of  authority.  I  belong  to  the  republic  of 
intellectual  liberty,  and  only  those  are  good  citizens 
of  that  republic  who  depend  upon  reason  and  upon 
persuasion,  and  only  those  are  traitors  who  resort 
to  brute  force. 

Now,  I  beg  of  you  all  to  forget  just  for  a  few 
moments  that  you  are  Methodists  or  Baptists  or 
Catholics  or  Presbyterians,  and  let  us  for  an  hour 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVEh*  449 

or  two  remember  only  that  we  are  men  and  women. 
And  allow  me  to  say  "  man  "  and  "  woman  "  are  the 
highest  titles  that  can  be  bestowed  upon  humanity. 

Let  us,  if  possible,  banish  all  fear  from  the 
mind.  Do  not  imagine  that  there  is  some  being 
in  the  infinite  expanse  who  is  not  willing  that  every 
man  and  woman  should  think  for  himself  and  her- 
self. Do  not  imagine  that  there  is  any  being  who 
would  give  to  his  children  the  holy  torch  oi  reason, 
and  then  damn  them  for  following  that  sacred  light. 
Let  us  have  courage. 

Priests  have  invented  a  crime  called  "  blas- 
phemy," and  behind  that  crime  hypocrisy  has 
crouched  for  thousands  of  years.  There  is  but 
one  blasphemy,  and  that  is  injustice.  There  is  but 
one  worship,  and  that  is  justice ! 

You  need  not  fear  the  anger  of  a  god  that 
you  cannot  injure.  Rather  fear  to  injure  your 
fellow-men.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  a  crime  you  can 
not  commit.  Rather  be  afraid  of  the  one  that  you 
may  commit.  The  reason  that  you  cannot  injure 
God  is  that  the  Infinite  is  conditionless.  You 
cannot  increase  or  diminish  the  happiness  of  any 
being  without  changing  that  being's  condition.  If 
God  is  conditionless,  you  can  neither  injure  nor 
benefit  him. 


450  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

There  was  a  Jewish  gentleman  went  into  a  res- 
taurant to  get  his  dinner,  and  the  devil  of  temp- 
tation whispered  in  his  ear:  "Eat  some  bacon." 
He  knew  if  there  was  anything  in  the  universe 
calculated  to  excite  the  wrath  of  an  infinite  being, 
who  made  every  shining  star,  it  was  to  see  a 
gentleman  eating  bacon.  He  knew  it,  and  he 
knew  the  infinite  being  was  looking,  that  he  was 
the  eternal  eavesdropper  of  the  universe.  But 
his  appetite  got  the  better  of  his  conscience,  as 
it  often  has  with  us  all,  and  he  ate  that  bacon.  He 
knew  it  was  wrong,  and  his  conscience  felt  the 
blood  of  shame  in  its  cheek.  When  he  went  into 
that  restaurant  the  weather  was  delightful,  the  sky 
was  as  blue  as  June,  and  when  he  came  out  the  sky 
was  covered  with  angry  clouds,  the  lightning 
leaping  from  one  to  the  other,  and  the  earth  shaking 
beneath  the  voice  of  the  thunder.  He  went  back 
into  that  restaurant  with  a  face  as  white  as  milk, 
and  he  said  to  one  of  the  keepers : 

"  My  God,  did  you  ever  hear  such  a  fuss  about 
a  little  piece  of  bacon  ?" 

As  long  as  we  harbor  such  opinions  of  infinity ; 
as  long  as  we  imagine  the  heavens  to  be  filled  with 
such  tyranny,  just  so  long  the  sons  of  men  will  be 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  45 1 

cringing,  intellectual  cowards.  Let  us  think,  and 
let  us  honestly  express  our  thought. 

Do  not  imagine  for  a  moment  that  I  think  people 
who  disagree  with  me  are  bad  people.  I  admit,  and 
I  cheerfully  admit,  that  a  very  large  proportion  of 
mankind,  and  a  very  large  majority,  a  vast  number 
are  reasonably  honest.  I  believe  that  most  Chris- 
tians believe  what  they  teach  ;  that  most  ministers 
are  endeavoring  to  make  this  world  better.  I  do 
not  pretend  to  be  better  than  they  are.  It  is  an 
intellectual  question.  It  is  a  question,  first,  of  intel- 
lectual liberty,  and  after  that,  a  question  to  be  settled 
at  the  bar  of  human  reason.  I  do  not  pretend  to  be 
better  than  they  are.  Probably  I  am  a  good  deal 
worse  than  many  of  them,  but  that  is  not  the  ques- 
tion. The  question  is  :  Bad  as  I  am,  have  I  the 
right  to  think  ?    And  I  think  I  have  for  two  reasons  : 

First,  I  cannot  help  it.     And  secondly,  I  like  it. 

The  whole  question  is  right  at  a  point.  If  I 
have  not  a  right  to   express  my  thoughts,  who  has  ? 

"  Oh,"  they  say,  "  we  will  allow  you  to  think,  we 
will  not  burn  you." 

"All  right ;  why  won't  you  burn  me  ?  " 

*'  Because  we  think  a  decent  man  will  allow 
others  to  think  and  to  express  his  thought" 


452  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

"  Then  the  reason  you  do  not  persecute  me  for 
njy  thought  is  that  you  believe  it  would  be  infamous 
m  you  ? 

"Yes." 

*'  And  yet  you  worship  a  God  who  will,  as  you 
declare,  punish  me  forever?" 

Surely  an  infinite  God  ought  to  be  as  just  as 
man.  Surely  no  God  can  have  the  right  to  punish 
his  children  for  being  honest.  He  should  not 
reward  hypocrisy  with  heaven,  and  punish  candor 
with  eternal  pain. 

The  next  question  then  is :  Can  I  commit  a  sin 
against  God  by  thinking  ?  If  God  did  not  intend  I 
should  think,  why  did  he  give  me  a  thinker?  For 
one,  I  am  convinced,  not  only  that  I  have  the  right 
to  think,  but  that  it  is  my  duty  to  express  my  honest 
thoughts.  Whatever  the  gods  may  say  we  must  be 
true  to  ourselves. 

We  have  got  what  they  call  the  Christian 
system  of  religion,  and  thousands  of  people  won- 
der how  I  can  be  wicked  enough  to  attack  that 
system. 

There  are  many  good  things  about  it,  and  I  shall 
never  attack  anything  that  I  believe  to  be  good  !  I 
shall    never   fear    to    attack     anything    I    honestly 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  453 

believe  to  be  wrong !  We  have  what  they  call  the 
Christian  religion,  and  I  find,  just  in  proportion 
that  nations  have  been  religious,  just  in  the  pro- 
portion they  have  clung  to  the  religion  of  their 
founders,  they  have  gone  back  to  barbarism.  I 
find  that  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  are  the  three  worst 
nations  in  Europe.  I  find  that  the  nation  nearest 
infidel  is  the  most  prosperous — France. 

And  so  I  say  there  can  be  no  danger  in  the 
exercise  of  absolute  intellectual  freedom.  I  find 
among  ourselves  the  men  who  think  are  at  least 
as  good  as  those  who  do  not. 

We  have,  I  say,  a  Christian  system,  and  that 
system  is  founded  upon  what  they  are  pleased  to 
call  the  *'  New  Testament."  Who  wrote  the  New 
Testament?  I  do  not  know.  Who  does  know? 
Nobody.  We  have  found  many  manuscripts  con- 
taining portions  of  the  New  Testament.  Some  of 
these  manuscripts  leave  out  five  or  six  books — 
many  of  them.  Others  more ;  others  less.  No  two 
of  these  manuscripts  agreCo  Nobody  knows  who 
wrote  these  manuscripts.  They  are  all  written  in 
Greek.  The  disciples  of  Christ,  so  far  as  we  know, 
knew  only  Hebrew.  Nobody  ever  saw,  so  far  as 
we  know,  one  of  the  original  Hebrew  manuscripts. 


454  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

Nobody  ever  saw  anybody  who  had  seen  anybody 
who  had  heard  of  anybody  that  had  ever  seen  any- 
body that  had  ever  seen  one  of  the  original  Hebrew 
manuscripts.  No  doubt  the  clergy  of  your  city 
have  told  you  these  facts  thousands  of  times,  and 
they  will  be  obliged  to  me  for  having  repeated 
them  once  more.  These  manuscripts  are  written 
in  what  are  called  capital  Greek  letters.  They  are 
called  Uncial  manuscripts,  and  the  New  Testament 
was  not  divided  into  chapters  and  verses,  even, 
until  the  year  of  grace  155 1.  In  the  original  the 
manuscripts  and  gospels  are  signed  by  nobody. 
The  epistles  are  addressed  to  nobody  ;  and  they  are 
signed  by  the  same  person.  All  the  addresses,  all 
the  pretended  ear-marks  showing  to  whom  they 
were  written,  and  by  whom  they  were  written,  are 
simply  interpolations,  and  everybody  who  has 
studied  the  subject  knows  it. 

It  is  further  admitted  that  even  these 
manuscripts  have  not  been  properly  translated,  and 
they  have  a  syndicate  now  making  a  new 
translation ;  and  I  suppose  that  I  can  not  tell 
whether  I  really  believe  the  New  Testament  or  not 
until  I  see  that  new  translation. 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED*  455 

You  must  remember,  also,  one  other  thing. 
Christ  never  wrote  a  solitary  word  of  the  New 
Testament  —  not  one  word.  There  is  an  account 
that  he  once  stooped  and  wrote  something  in  the 
sand,  but  that  has  not  been  preserved.  He  never 
told  anybody  to  write  a  word.  He  never  said: 
*•  Matthew,  remember  this.  Mark,  do  not  forget  to 
put  that  down.  Luke,  be  sure  that  in  your  gospe! 
you  have  this.  John,  do  not  forget  it."  Not  one 
word.  And  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  a. 
being  coming  from  another  world,  with  a  message 
of  infinite  importance  to  mankind,  should  at  least 
have  verified  that  message  by  his  own  signature. 
Is  it  not  wonderful  that  not  one  word  was  written 
by  Christ?  Is  it  not  strange  that  he  gave  no 
orders  to  have  his  words  preserved  —  words  upon 
which  hung  the  salvation  of  a  world  ? 

Why  was  nothing  written  ?  I  will  tell  you.  In 
my  judgment  they  expected  the  end  of  the  world  in 
a  few  days.  That  generation  was  not  to  pass  away 
until  the  heavens  should  be  rolled  up  as  a  scroll, 
and  until  the  earth  should  melt  with  fervent  heat. 
That  was  their  belief.  They  believed  that  the 
world  was  to  be  destroyed,  and  that  there  was  to 
be  another  coming,  and  that  the  saints  were  then  to 


456  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVEDf 

govern  the  earth.  And  they  even  went  so  far 
among  the  apostles,  as  we  frequently  io  now  before 
election,  as  to  divide  out  the  officers  in  advance. 
This  Testament,  as  it  now  is,  was  not  written  for 
hundreds  of  years  after  the  apostles  were  dust. 
Many  of  the  pretended  facts  lived  in  the  open 
mouth  of  credulity.  They  wen^  in  the  waste- 
baskets  of  forgetfulness.  They  depended  upon  the 
inaccuracy  of  legend,  and  for  centuries  these 
doctrines  and  stories  were  blown  about  by  the 
inconstant  winds.  And  when  reduced  to  writing, 
some  gentleman  would  write  by  the  side  of  the 
passage  his  idea  of  it,  and  the  next  copyist  would 
put  that  in  as  a  part  of  the  text.  And,  when  it  was 
mostly  written,  and  the  church  got  into  trouble,  and 
wanted  a  passage  to  help  it  out,  one  was 
interpolated  to  order.  So  that  now  it  is  among  the 
easiest  things  in  the  world  to  pick  out  at  least  one 
hundred  interpolations  in  the  Testament.  And  I 
will  pick  some  of  them  out  before  I  get  through. 

And  let  me  say  here,  once  for  all,  that  for  the 
man  Christ  I  have  infinite  respect.  Let  me  say, 
once  for  all,  that  the  place  where  man  has  died  for 
man  is  holy  ground.  And  let  me  say,  once  for  all, 
that  to  that  great  and  serene  man   I  gladly  pay,  I 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  457 

gladly  pay,  the  tribute  of  my  admiration  and  my 
tears.  He  was  a  reformer  in  his  day.  He  was  an 
infidel  in  his  time.  He  was  regarded  as  a  blas- 
phemer, and  his  life  was  destroyed  by  hypocrites, 
who  have,  in  all  ages,  done  what  they  could  to 
trample  freedom  and  manhood  out  of  the  human 
mind.  Had  I  lived  at  that  time  I  would  have  been 
his  friend,  and  should  he  come  again  he  will  not  find 
a  better  friend  than  I  will  be. 

That  is  for  the  man.  For  the  theological 
creation  I  have  a  different  feeling.  If  he  was,  in 
fact,  God,  he  knew  there  was  no  such  thing  as 
death.  He  knew  that  what  we  called  death  was 
but  the  eternal  opening  of  the  golden  gates  of 
everlasting  joy  ;  and  it  took  no  heroism  to  face  a 
death  that  was  eternal  life. 

But  when  a  man,  when  a  poor  boy  sixteen 
years  of  age,  goes  upon  the  field  of  battle  to  keep 
his  flag  in  heaven,  not  knowing  but  that  death 
ends  all ;  not  knowing  but  that  when  the  shadows 
creep  over  him,  the  darkness  will  be  eternal,  there  is 
heroism.  For  the  man  who,  in  the  darkness,  said : 
"  My  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?" —  for  that 
man  I  have  nothing  but  respect,  admiration,  and 
love.     Back  of  the  theological  shreds,   rags,   and 


458  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

patches,  hiding  the  real  Christ,  I  see  a  genuine 
man. 

A  while  ago  I  made  up  my  mind  to  find  out 
what  was  necessary  for  me  to  do  in  order  to  be 
saved.  If  I  have  got  a  soul,  I  want  it  saved.  I 
do  not   wish   to   lose   anything   that   is    of  value. 

For  thousands  of  years  the  world  has  been 
asking  that  question : 

"  What  must  we  do  to  be  saved  ?" 

Saved  from  poverty  ?  No.  Saved  from  crime  ? 
No.  Tyranny  ?  No.  But  •*  What  must  we  do  to 
be  saved  from  the  eternal  wrath  of  the  God  who 
made  us  all  ?" 

If  God  made  us,  he  will  not  destroy  us.  Infi- 
nite wisdom  never  made  a  poor  investment.  Upon 
all  the  works  of  an  infinite  God,  a  dividend  must 
finally  be  declared.  Why  should  God  make  fail- 
ures ?  Why  should  he  waste  material  ?  Why 
should  he  not  correct  his  mistakes,  instead  of 
damning  them?  The  pulpit  has  cast  a  shadow 
over  even  the  cradle.  The  doctrine  of  endless 
punishment  has  covered  the  cheeks  of  this  world 
with  tears.     I  despise  it,  and  I  defy  it. 

I  made  up  my  mind,  I  say,  to  see  what  I  had  to 
do   in   order   to   save   my   soul   according   to   the 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  459 

Testament,  and  thereupon  I  read  it.  I  read  the 
gospels,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  and 
found  that  the  church  had  been  deceiving  me.  I 
found  that  the  clergy  did  not  understand  their  own 
book ;  that  they  had  been  building  upon  passages 
that  had  been  interpolated ;  upon  passages  that 
were  entirely  untrue,  and  I  will  tell  you  why  I 
think  so. 


II. 

THE    GOSPEL    OF    MATTHEW. 

ACCORDING  to  the  church,  the  first  gospel 
was  written  by  Matthew.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  he  never  wrote  a  word  of  it — never  saw  it, 
never  heard  of  it  and  probably  never  will.  But  for 
the  purposes  of  this  lecture  I  admit  that  he  wrote 
it.  I  will  admit  that  he  was  with  Christ  for  three 
years ;  that  he  was  his  constant  companion ;  that 
he  shared  his  sorrows  and  his  triumphs ;  that  he 
heard  his  words  by  the  lonely  lakes,  the  barren 
hills,  in  synagogue  and  street,  and  that  he  knew 
his  heart  and  became  acquainted  with  his  thoughts 
and  aims. 

Now  let  us  see  what  Matthew  says  we  must  do 
in  order  to  be  saved.  And  I  take  it  that,  if  this 
is  true,  Matthew  is  as  good  authority  as  any  minis- 
ter in  the  world. 


f^HAT  MVST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVEDf  461 

The  first  thing  I  find  upon  the  subject  of 
salvation  is  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  is 
embraced  in  what  is  commonly  known  as  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.     It  is  as  follows  : 

"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."     Good  ! 

"Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy."  Good !  Whether  they  belonged  to  any 
church  or  not ;  whether  they  believed  the  Bible  or 
not? 

"  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy."     Good ! 

"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 
see  God.  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  for  they 
shall  be  called  the  children  of  God.  Blessed  are 
they  which  are  persecuted  for  righteousness  sake, 
for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."     Good ! 

In  the  same  sermon  he  says  :  "  Think  not  that 
I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets.  I 
am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill."  And  then 
he  makes  use  of  this  remarkable  language,  almost 
as  applicable  to-day  as  it  was  then :  "For  I  say 
unto  you  that  except  your  righteousness  shall 
exceed    the     righteousness    of    the    scribes    and 


462  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

Pharisees  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."     Good ! 

In  the  sixth  chapter  I  find  the  following,  and  it 
comes  directly  after  the  prayer  known  as  the  Lord's 
prayer : 

"For  if  ye  forgive  men  their  trespasses,  your 
Heavenly  Father  will  also  forgive  you  ;  but  if  ye 
forgive  not  men  their  trespasses,  neither  will  your 
father  forgive  your  trespasses." 

I  accept  the  condition.  There  is  an  offer;  I 
accept  it.  If  you  will  forgive  men  that  trespass 
against  you,  God  will  forgive  your  trespasses 
against  him.  I  accept  the  terms,  and  I  never  wiil 
ask  any  God  to  treat  me  better  than  I  treat  my 
fellow-men.  There  is  a  square  promise.  There  is 
a  contract.  If  you  will  forgive  others  God  will 
forgive  you.  And  it'  does  not  say  you  must 
believe  in  the  Old  Testament,  or  be  baptized,  or 
join  the  church,  or  keep  Sunday;  that  you  must 
count  beads,  or  pray,  or  become  a  nun,  or  a  priest ; 
that  you  must  preach  sermons  or  hear  them,  build 
churches  or  fill  them.  Not  one  word  is  said  about 
eating  or  fasting,  denying  or  believing.  It  simply 
says,  if  you  forgive  others  God  will  forgive  you ; 
and  it  must  of  necessity  be  true.     No  god  could 


WRAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED f  463 

afford  to  damn  a  forgiving  man.  Suppose  God 
should  damn  to  everlasting  fire  a  man  so  great  and 
good,  that  he,  looking  from  the  abyss  of  hell, 
would  forgive  God, —  how  would  a  god  feel  then  ? 

Now  let  me  make  myself  plain  upon  one  subject, 
perfectly  plain.  For  instance,  I  hate  Presbyterian- 
ism,  but  I  know  hundreds  of  splendid  Presbyterians. 
Understand  me.  I  hate  Methodism,  and  yet  I 
know  hundreds  of  splendid  Methodists.  I  hate 
Catholicism,  and  like  Catholics.  I  hate  insanity 
but   not  the    insane. 

I  do  not  war  against  men.  I  do  not  war  against 
persons.  I  war  against  certain  doctrines  that  I 
believe  to  be  wrong.  But  I  give  to  every  other 
numan  being  every  right  that  I  claim  for  myself. 

The  next  thing  that  I  find  is  in  the  seventh 
chapter  and  the  second  verse  :  "  For  with  what 
judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged ;  and  with 
what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you 
again."     Good  !     That  suits  me  ! 

And  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Matthew :  "  For 
whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father  that  is 
in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother  and  sister  and 
mother.  For  the  son  of  man  shall  come  in  the 
glory  of  his  father  with  his  angels,   and   then   he 


464      WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f 

shall  reward  every  man  according ."     To  the 

church  he  belongs  to?  No.  To  the  manner  in 
which  he  was  baptized?  No.  According  to  his 
creed?  No.  "Then  he  shall  reward  every  man 
according  to  his  works."  Good!  I  subscribe  to 
that  doctrine. 

And  in  the  eighteenth  chapter:  "And  Jesus 
called  a  little  child  to  him  and  stood  him  in  the 
midst;  and  said,  'Verily  I  say  unto  you,  except  ye 
be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall 
not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  "  I  do  not 
wonder  that  in  his  day,  surrounded  by  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  he  turned  lovingly  to  little  children. 

And  yet,  see  what  children  the  little  children 
of  God  have  been.  What  an  interesting  dimpled 
darling  John  Calvin  w^s.  Think  of  that  prattling 
babe,  Jonathan  Edwards!  Think  of  the  infants 
that  founded  the  Inquisition,  that  invented  instru- 
ments of  torture  to  tear  human  flesh.  They  were 
the  ones  who  had  become  as  little  children.  They 
were  the  children  of  faith. 

So  I  find  in  the  nineteenth  chapter:  "And 
behold,  one  came  and  said  ufito  him :  *  Good 
master,  what  good  thing  shall  I  do  that  I  may  have 
eternal  life  ?  '     And  he  said  unto  him,  *  Why  callest 


WHA7  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SA  VED?  465 

thou  me  good  ?  There  is  none  good  but  one,  that 
is  God:  but  if  thou  wilt  enter  into  life,  keep  the 
commandments.'     He  saith  unto  him,  'which? ' " 

Now,  there  is  a  fair  issue.  Here  is  a  child  of 
God  asking  God  what  is  necessary  for  him  to  do 
in  order  to  inherit  eternal  life.  And  God  said  to 
him :  Keep  the  commandments.  And  the  child 
said  to  the  Almighty:  "Which?"  Now,  if  there 
ever  has  been  an  opportunity  given  to  the  Almighty 
to  furnish  a  man  of  an  inquiring  mind  with  the 
necessary  information  upon  that  subject,  here  was 
the  opportunity.  "  He  said  unto  him,  which  ?  And 
Jesus  said:  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder;  thou  shalt 
not  commit  adultery ;  thou  shalt  not  steal ;  thou 
shalt  not  bear  false  witness ;  honor  thy  father  and 
mother;  and  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself." 

He  did  not  say  to  him:  "You  must  believe  in 
me  —  that  I  am  the  only  begotten  son  of  the  living 
God."  He  did  not  say :  "  You  must  be  born 
again."  He  did  not  say:  "You  must  believe  the 
Bible."  He  did  not  say  :  "  You  must  remember 
the  Sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy."  He  simply  said  : 
"Thou  shalt  do  no  murder.     Thou  shalt  not  com- 


466  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED f 

mit  adultery.  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  Thou  shalt 
not  bear  false  witness.  Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother;  and  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." And  thereupon  the  young  man,  who  I  think 
was  mistaken,  said  unto  him :  "  All  these  things 
have  I  kept  from  my  youth  up." 

What  right  has  the  church  to  add  conditions  of 
salvation?  Why  should  we  suppose  that  Christ 
failed  to  tell  the  young  man  all  that  was  necessary 
for  him  to  do?  Is  it  possible  that  he  left  out  some 
important  thing  simply  to  mislead  ?  Will  some 
minister  tell  us  why  he  thinks  that  Christ  kept  back 
the  "scheme"  ? 

Now  comes  an  interpolation. 

In  the  old  times  when  the  church  got  a  little 
scarce  of  money,  they  always  put  in  a  passage 
praising  poverty.  So  they  had  this  young  man 
ask:  "What  lack  I  yet?  And  Jesus  said  unto 
him  :  If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  and  sell  that  thou 
hast  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have 
treasure  in  heaven.  " 

The  church  has  always  been  willing  to  swap  off 
treasures  in  heaven  for  cash  down.  And  when  the 
next  verse  was  written  the  church  must  have  been 
nearly  bankrupt.     "  And  again  I  say  unto  you,  it  is 


WEAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  467 

easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle 
than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God."  Did  you  ever  know  a  wealthy  disciple  to 
unload  on  account  of  that  verse  ? 

And  then  comes  another  verse,  which  I  believe 
is  an  interpolation:  "And  everyone  that  hath 
forsaken  houses,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father, 
or  mother,  or  wife,  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my 
name's  sake,  shall  receive  an  hundred  fold,  and 
shall  inherit  everlasting  life." 

Christ  never  said  it.  Never.  "  Whosoever 
shall  forsake  father  and  mother." 

Why,  he  said  to  this  man  that  asked  him, 
"What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ?"  among 
other  things,  he  said  :  "  Honor  thy  father  and 
thy  mother."  And  we  turn  over  the  page  and  he 
says  again :  "  If  you  will  desert  your  father  and 
mother  you  shall  have  everlasting  life."  It  will  not 
do.  If  you  will  desert  your  wife  and  your  little 
children,  or  your  lands  —  the  idea  of  putting  a  house 
and  lot  on  equality  with  wife  and  children  !  Think 
of  that !  I  do  not  accept  the  terms.  I  will  never 
desert  the  one  I  love  for  the  promise  of  any  god. 

It  is  far  more  important  to  love  your  wife  than 
to  love  God,  and  I  will  tell  you  why.     You  cannot 


468  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

help  him,  but  you  can  help  her.  You  can  fill  her 
life  with  the  perfume  of  perpetual  joy.  It  is  far 
more  important  that  you  love  your  children  than 
that  you  love  Jesus  Christ.  And  why?  If  he  is 
God  you  cannot  help  him,  but  you  can  plant  a  little 
flower  of  happiness  in  every  footstep  of  the  child, 
from  the  cradle  until  you  die  in  that  child's  arms. 
Let  me  tell  you  to-day  it  is  far  more  important  to 
build  a  home  than  to  erect  a  church.  The  holiest 
temple  beneath  the  stars  is  a  home  that  love  has 
built.  And  the  holiest  altar  in  all  the  wide  world 
is  the  fireside  around  which  gather  father  and 
mother  and  the  sweet  babes. 

There  was  a  time  when  people  believed  the 
infamy  commanded  in  this  frightful  passage.  There 
was  a  time  when  they  did  desert  fathers  and 
mothers  and  wives  and  children.  St.  Augustine 
says  to  the  devotee  :  Fly  to  the  desert,  and  though 
your  wife  put  her  arms  around  your  neck,  tear  her 
hands  away ;  she  is  a  temptation  of  the  devil. 
Though  your  father  and  mother  throw  their  bodies 
athwart  your  threshold,  step  over  them ;  and  though 
your  children  pursue,  and  with  weeping  eyes 
beseech  you  to  return,  listen  not.  It  is  the 
temptation  of  the  evil  one.     Fly  to  the  desert  and 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED?  469 

save  your  soul.  Think  of  such  a  soul  being  worth 
saving.  While  I  live  I  propose  to  stand  by  the 
ones  I  love. 

There  is  another  condition  of  salvation.  I  find 
it  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter:  "Then  shall  the 
King  say  unto  them  on  his  right  hand,  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  My  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  pre- 
pared for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
For  I  was  an  hungered  and  ye  gave  me  meat ;  I 
was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger 
and  ye  took  me  in  ;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me  ;  I 
was  sick  and  ye  visited  me  ;  I  was  in  prison  and 
ye  came  unto  me."     Good  ! 

I  tell  you  to-night  that  God  will  not  punish  with 
eternal  thirst  the  man  who  has  put  the  cup  of 
cold  water  to  the  lips  of  his  neighbor.  God  will 
not  leave  in  the  eternal  nakedness  of  pain  the 
man  who  has  clothed  his  fellow-men. 

For  instance,  here  is  a  shipwreck,  and  here  is 
some  brave  sailor  who  stands  aside  and  allows  a 
woman  whom  he  never  saw  before  to  take  his  place 
in  the  boat,  and  he  stands  there,  grand  and  serene 
as  the  wide  sea,  and  he  goes  down.  Do  you  tell 
me  that  there  is  any  God  who  will  push  the  life- 
boat from  the  shore  of  eternal  life,  when  that  man 


470  WITAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

wishes  to  step  in  ?  Do  you  tell  me  that  God  can 
be  unpitying  to  the  pitiful,  that  he  can  be  unfor- 
giving to  the  forgiving  ?  I  deny  it ;  and  from  the 
aspersions  of  the  pulpit  I  seek  to  rescue  the  repu- 
tation of  the  Deity. 

Now,  I  have  read  you  substantially  everything 
in  Matthew  on  the  subject  of  salvation.  That  is 
all  there  is.  Not  one  word  about  believing  any- 
thing. It  is  the  gospel  of  deed,  the  gospel  of 
charity,  the  gospel  of  self-denial ;  and  if  only  that 
gospel  had  been  preached,  persecution  never  would 
have  shed  one  drop  of  blood.     Not  one. 

According  to  the  testimony  Matthew  was  well 
acquainted  with  Christ.  According  to  the  tes- 
timony, he  had  been  with  him,  and  his  companion 
for  years,  and  if  it  was  necessary  to  believe  any- 
thing in  order  to  get  to  heaven,  Matthew  should 
have  told  us.  But  he  forgot  it,  or  he  did  not 
believe  it,  or  he  never  heard  of  it.  You  can 
take  your  choice. 

In  Matthew,  we  find  that  heaven  is  promised, 
first,  to  the  poor  in  spirit.  Second,  to  the 
merciful.  Third,  to  the  pure  in  heart.  Fourth, 
to  the  peacemakers.  Fifth,  to  those  who  are 
persecuted    for     rig^hteousness'      sake.     Sixth,    to 


WSAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  47 1 

those  who  keep  and  teach  the  commandments. 
Seventh,  to  those  who  forgive  men  that  trespass 
against  them.  Eighth,  that  we  will  be  judged  as 
we  judge  others.  Ninth,  that  they  who  receive 
prophets  and  righteous  men  shall  receive  a 
prophet's  reward.  Tenth,  to  those  who  do  the 
will  of  God.  Eleventh,  that  every  man  shall  be 
rewarded  according  to  his  works.  Twelfth,  to 
those  who  become  as  little  children.  Thirteenth, 
to  those  who  forgive  the  trespasses  of  others. 
Fourteenth,  to  the  perfect :  they  who  sell  all 
that  they  have  and  give  to  the  poor.  Fifteenth, 
to  them  who  forsake  houses,  and  brethren,  and 
sisters,  and  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and 
children,  and  lands  for  the  sake  of  Christ's  name. 
Sixteenth,  to  those  who  feed  the  hungry,  give 
drink  to  the  thirsty,  shelter  to  the  stranger, 
clothes  to  the  naked,  comfort  to  the  sick,  and 
who  visit  the  prisoner. 

Nothing  else  is  said  with  regard  to  salvation 
in  the  gospel  according  to  St.  Matthew.  Not 
one  word  about  believing  the  Old  Testament  to 
have  been  inspired ;  not  one  word  about  being 
baptized  or  joining  a  church ;  not  one  word 
about  believing  in    any  miracle  ;    not  even  a  hint 


472  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

that  it  was  necessary  to  believe  that  Christ  was 
the  son  of  God,  or  that  he  did  any  wonderful  or 
miraculous  things,  or  that  he  was  born  of  a 
virgin,  or  that  his  coming  had  been  foretold  by 
the  Jewish  prophets.  Not  one  word  about 
believing  in  the  Trinity,  or  in  foreordination  or 
predestination.  Matthew  had  not  understood  from 
Christ  that  any  such  things  were  necessary  to 
ensure  the  salvation  of  the  soul. 

According  to  the  testimony,  Matthew  had 
been  in  the  company  of  Christ,  some  say  three 
years  and  some  say  one,  but  at  least  he  had 
been  with  him  long  enough  to  find  out  some  of 
his  ideas  upon  this  great  subject.  And  yet 
Matthew  never  got  the  impression  that  it  was 
necessary  to  believe  something  in  order  to  get  to 
heaven.  He  supposed  that  if  a  man  forgave 
others  God  would  forgive  him ;  he  believed  that 
God  would  show  mercy  to  the  merciful ;  that  he 
would  not  allow  those  who  fed  the  hungry  to 
starve ;  that  he  would  not  put  in  the  flames  of 
hell  those  who  had  given  cold  water  to  the  thirsty  ; 
that  he  would  not  cast  into  the  eternal  dungeon 
of  his  wrath  those  who  had  visited  the 
imprisoned ;  and  that  he  would  not  damn  men 
who  forgave  others. 


WBAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  473 

Matthew  had  it  in  his  mind  that  God  would 
treat  us  very  much  as  we  treated  other  people; 
and  that  in  the  next  world  he  would  treat  with 
kindness  those  who  had  been  loving  and  gentle 
in  their  lives.  It  may  be  the  apostle  was 
mistaken  ;  but  evidently  that  was  his  opinion. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  MARK. 

LET  us  now  see  what  Mark  thought  it  necessary 
for  a  man  to  do  to  save  his  soul.  In  the 
fourth  chapter,  after  Jesus  had  given  to  the  muhi- 
tude  by  the  sea  the  parable  of  the  sower,  his  disci- 
ples, when  they  were  again  alone,  asked  him  the 
meaning  of  the  parable.     Jesus  replied  : 

"  Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mystery  of 
the  kingdom  of  God :  but  unto  them  that  are 
without,  all  these  things  are  done  in  parables: 

*•  That  seeing,  they  may  see,  and  not  perceive  ; 
and  hearing  they  may  hear,  and  not  understand  ; 
lest  at  any  time  they  should  be  converted,  and 
their  sins  should  be  forgiven  them." 

It  is  a  little  hard  to  understand  why  he  should 
have  preached  to  people  that  he  did  not  intend 
should  know  his  meaning.     Neither  is  it  quite  clear 

(474) 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED T  475 

why  he  objected  to  their  being  converted.  This,  I 
suppose,  is  one  of  the  mysteries  that  we  should 
simply  believe  without  endeavoring  to  comprehend. 

With  the  above  exception,  and  one  other  that  I 
will  mention  hereafter,  Mark  substantially  agrees 
with  Matthew,  and  says  that  God  will  be  merciful 
to  the  merciful,  that  he  will  be  kind  to  the  kind, 
that  he  will  pity  the  pitying,  and  love  the  loving. 
Mark  upholds  the  religion  of  Matthew  until  we 
come  to  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  verses  of  the 
sixteenth  chapter,  and  then  I  strike  an  interpola- 
tion put  in  by  hypocrisy,  put  in  by  priests  who 
longed  to  grasp  with  bloody  hands  the  sceptre  of 
universal  power.  Let  me  read  it  to  you.  It  is  the 
most  infamous  passage  in  the  Bible.  Christ  never 
said  it.     No  sensible  man  ever  said  it. 

'*  And  He  said  unto  them"  (that  is,  unto  his  dis- 
ciples), "  go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature.  He  that  believeth  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved  ;  but  he  that  believeth  not 
shall  be  damned." 

That  passage  was  written  so  that  fear  would 
give  alms  to  hypocrisy.  Now,  I  propose  to  prove 
to  you  that  this  is  an  interpolation.  How  will  I  do 
it?     In  the  first  place,  not  one  word  is  said  about 


476  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED  f 

belief,  in  Matthew.  In  the  next  place,  not  one  word 
about  belief,  in  Mark,  until  I  come  to  that  verse,  and 
where  is  that  said  to  have  been  spoken  ?  Accord- 
ing to  Mark,  it  is  a  part  of  the  last  conversation 
of  Jesus  Christ, — just  before,  according  to  the 
account,  he  ascended  bodily  before  their  eyes.  If 
there  ever  was  any  important  thing  happened  in  this 
world  that  was  it.  If  there  is  any  conversation  that 
people  would  be  apt  to  recollect,  it  would  be  the  last 
conversation  with  a  god  before  he  rose  visibly 
through  the  air  and  seated  himself  upon  the  throne 
of  the  infinite.  We  have  in  this  Testament  five 
accounts  of  the  last  conversation  happening  between 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Matthew  gives  it, 
and  yet  Matthew  does  not  state  that  in  that  con- 
versation Christ  said:  "Whoso  believeth  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved,  and  whoso  believeth  not 
shall  be  damned."  And  if  he  did  say  those  words 
they  were  the  most  important  that  ever  fell  from 
lips.  Matthew  did  not  hear  it,  or  did  not  believe 
it,  or  forgot  it. 

Then  I  turn  to  Luke,  and  he  gives  an  account 
of  this  same  last  conversation,  and  not  one  word 
does  he  say  upon  that  subject.  Luke  does  not 
pretend  that  Christ  said  that  whoso  believeth   not 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  477 

shall  be  damned.  Luke  certainly  did  not  hear  it. 
May  be  he  forgot  it.  Perhaps  he  did  not  think 
that  it  was  worth  recording.  Now,  it  is  the  most 
important  thing,  if  Christ  said  it,  that  he  ever  said. 
Then  I  turn  to  John,  and  he  gives  an  account  of 
the  last  conversation,  but  not  one  solitary  word  on 
the  subject  of  belief  or  unbelief.  Not  one  solitary 
word  on  the  subject  of  damnation.  Not  one. 
John  might  not  have  been  listening. 

Then  I  turn  to  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts,  and 
there  I  find  an  account  of  the  last  conversation ; 
and  in  that  conversation  there  is  not  one  word  upon 
this  subject.  This  is  a  demonstration  that  the  pas- 
sage in  Mark  is  an  interpolation.  What  other 
reason  have  I  got?  There  is  not  one  particle  of 
sense  in  it.  Why  ?  No  man  can  control  his  belief. 
You  hear  evidence  for  and  against,  and  the  integrity 
of  the  soul  stands  at  the  scales  and  tells  which  side 
rises  and  which  side  falls.  You  can  not  believe  as 
you  wish.  You  must  believe  as  you  must.  And 
he  might  as  well  have  said  :  "  Go  into  the  world 
and  preach  the  gospel,  and  whosoever  has  red  hair 
shall  be  saved,  and  whosoever  hath  not  shall  be 
damned." 


478  WHAT  MUST  fVE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

I  have  another  reason.  I  am  much  obliged  to 
the  gentleman  who  interpolated  these  passages.  I 
am  much  obliged  to  him  that  he  put  in  some  more 
—  two  more.     Now  hear  : 

**  And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that 
believe."     Good ! 

"In  my  name  shall  they  cast  out  devils;  they 
shall  speak  with  new  tongues;  they  shall  take 
up  serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing  it 
shall  not  hurt  them.  They  shall  lay  hands  on  the 
sick  and  they  shall  recover." 

Bring  on  your  believer  !  Let  him  cast  out  a  devil. 
I  do  not  ask  for  a  large  one.  Just  a  little  one  for 
a  cent.  Let  him  take  up  serpents.  "  And  if  they 
drink  any  deadly  thing  it  shall  not  hurt  them."  Let 
me  mix  up  a  dose  for  the  believer,  and  if  it  does 
not  hurt  him  I  will  join  a  church.  "  Oh  !  but," 
they  say,  "those  things  only  lasted  through  the 
Apostolic  age."  Let  us  see.  "Go  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  gospel,  and  whosoever  be- 
lieves and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,  and  these 
signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe." 

How  long  ?  I  think  at  least  until  they  had  gone 
into  all  the  world.  Certainly  those  signs  should 
follow  until  all  the   world  had  been  visited.     And 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  479 

yet  if  that  declaration  was  in  the  mouth  oi  Christ, 
he  then  knew  that  one-half  of  the  world  was 
unknown,  and  that  he  would  be  dead  fourteen 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  years  before  his  disciples 
would  know  that  there  was  another  continent.  And 
yet  he  said,  "Go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel,"  and  he  knew  then  that  it  would  be  four- 
teen hundred  and  fifty-nine  years  before  anybody 
could  go.  Well,  if  it  was  worth  while  to  have  signs 
follow  believers  in  the  Old  World,  surely  it  was 
worth  while  to  have  signs  follow  believers  in  the 
New,  And  the  very  reason  that  signs  should 
follow  would  be  to  convince  the  unbeliever,  and 
there  are  as  many  unbelievers  now  as  ever,  and  the 
signs  are  as  necessary  to-day  as  they  ever  were.  I 
would  like  a  few  myself. 

This  frightful  declaration,  "  He  that  believeth 
and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,  but  he  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned,"  has  filled  the  world  with 
agony  and  crime.  Every  letter  of  this  passage  has 
been  sword  and  fagot ;  every  word  has  been 
dungeon  and  chain.  That  passage  made  the  sword 
of  persecution  drip  with  innocent  blood  through 
centuries  of  agony  and  crime.  That  passage  made 
the  horizon  of  a  thousand  years  lurid  with  the  fagot's 


48o  JVHA  T  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SA  VED  ? 

flames.  That  passage  contradicts  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount ;  travesties  the  Lord's  prayer  ;  turns  the 
splendid  reHgion  of  deed  and  duty  into  the 
superstition  of  creed  and  cruelty.  I  deny  it.  It  is 
infamous !     Christ  never  said  it ! 


IV. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  LUKE. 

IT  is  sufficient  to  say  that  Luke  agrees  substan- 
tially with  Matthew  and  Mark. 

'•Be  ye  therefore  merciful,  as  your  Father  also 
is  merciful."     Good! 

"Judge  not  and  ye  shall  not  be  judged: 
condemn  not  and  ye  shall  not  be  condemned: 
forgive  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven."     Good! 

"  Give  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you :  good 
measure,  pressed  down,  and  shaken  together,  and 
running  over."     Good !     I  like  it. 

"  For  with  the  same  measure  that  ye  mete 
withal,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again." 

He  agrees  substantially  with  Mark ;  he  agrees 
substantially  with  Matthew ;  and  I  come  at  last 
to  the  nineteenth  chapter. 

(481) 


482  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

**  And  Zaccheus  stood  and  said  unto  the  Lord, 
'  Behold,  Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to 
the  poor,  and  if  I  have  taken  anything  from  any 
man  by  false  accusation,  I  restore  him  four  fold.* 
And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  *  this  day  is  salvation 
come  to  this  house.' " 

That  is  good  doctrine.  He  did  not  ask  Zaccheus 
what  he  believed.  He  did  not  ask  him,  "  Do  you 
believe  in  the  Bible  ?  Do  you  believe  in  the  five 
points  ?  Have  you  ever  been  baptized  — 
sprinkled  ?  Oh !  immersed  ?  "  Half  of  my  goods  I 
give  to  the  poor,  and  if  I  have  taken  anything  from 
any  man  by  false  accusation,  I  restore  him  four 
fold."  "  And  Christ  said,  this  day  is  salvation 
come  to  this  house."     Good  ! 

I  read  also  in  Luke  that  Christ  when  upon  the 
cross  forgave  his  murderers,  and  that  is  considered 
the  shining  gem  in  the  crown  of  his  mercy.  He 
forgave  his  murderers.  He  forgave  the  men  who 
drove  the  nails  in  his  hands,  in  his  feet,  that 
plunged  a  spear  in  his  side  ;  the  soldier  that  in  the 
hour  of  death  offered  him  in  mockery  the  bitterness 
to  drink.  He  forgave  them  all  freely,  and  yet 
although  he  would  forgive  them,  he  will  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  as  we  are  told  by  the  orthodo:^' 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED*  483 

church,  damn  to  eternal  fire  a  noble  man  for  the 
expression  of  his  honest  thoughts.  That  will  not 
do.  I  find,  too,  in  Luke,  an  account  of  two  thieves 
that  were  crucified  at  the  same  time.  The  other 
gospels  speak  of  them.  One  says  they  both  railed 
upon  him.  Another  says  nothing  about  it.  In 
Luke  we  are  told  that  one  railed  upon  him,  but  one 
of  the  thieves  looked  and  pitied  Christ,  and  Christ 
said  to  that  thief : 

**  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise." 
Why  did  he  say  that  ?  Because  the  thief  pitied 
him.  God  can  not  afford  to  trample  beneath  the 
feet  of  his  infinite  wrath  the  smallest  blossom  of 
pity  that  ever  shed  its  perfume  in  the  human  heart! 
Who  was  this  thief?  To  what  church  did  he 
belong  ?  I  do  not  know.  The  fact  that  he  was  a 
thief  throws  no  light  on  that  question.  Who  was 
he  ?  What  did  he  believe  ?  I  do  not  know.  Did 
he  believe  in  the  Old  Testament  ?  In  the  miracles  ? 
I  do  not  know.  Did  he  believe  that  Christ  was 
God  ?  I  do  not  know.  Why  then  was  the  promise 
made  to  him  that  he  should  meet  Christ  in 
Paradise  ?  Simply  because  he  pitied  suffering 
innocence  upon  the  cross. 

God  can  not  afford  to  damn  any  man  who  is 
capable  of  pitying  anybody. 


V. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  JOHN. 

AND  now  we  come  to  John,  and  that  is  where 
the  trouble  commences. 

The  other  gospels  teach  that  God  will  be 
merciful  to  the  merciful,  forgiving  to  the  forgiving, 
kind  to  the  kind,  loving  to  the  loving,  just  to  the 
just,  merciful  to  the  good. 

Now  we  come  to  John,  and  here  is  another 
doctrine.  And  allow  me  to  say  that  John  was  not 
written  until  long  after  the  others.  John  was 
mostly  written  by  the  church. 

"Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him:  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  thee.  Except  a  man  be  born  again 
he  can  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Why  did  he  not  tell  Matthew  that  ?  Why  did 
he  not  tell  Luke  that.?  Why  did  he  not  tell  Mark 
that  ?  They  never  heard  of  it,  or  forgot  it,  or  they 
did  not  believe  it. 

(484) 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  485 

*'  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the 
Spirit,  he  can  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God." 
Why? 

"  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and 
that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.  Marvel 
not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  Ye  must  be  born  again." 
"That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that 
which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit,"  and  he  might 
have  added,  that  which  is  born  of  water  is  water. 

"  Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  '  ye  must  be 
born  again.' "  And  then  the  reason  is  given,  and  I 
admit  I  did  not  understand  it  myself  until  I  read  the 
reason,  and  when  you  hear  the  reason,  you  will 
understand  it  as  well  as  I  do  ;  and  here  it  is  :  "  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh, 
and  whither  it  goeth."  So,  I  find  in  the  book  of 
John  the  idea  of  the  Real  Presence. 

"And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wil- 
derness, even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up ; 

"That  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life. 

"For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him 
should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life. 


486  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

"  For  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to 
condemn  the  world,  but  that  the  world  through  him 
might  be  saved. 

"He  that  believeth  on  him  is  not  condemned; 
but  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already, 
because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the  name  of  the 
only  begotten  Son  of  God." 

"  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting 
life :  and  he  that  believeth  not  the  Son,  shall  not 
see  life;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him." 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that  heareth 
my  word,  and  believeth  on  him  that  sent  me,  hath 
everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condemna- 
tion ;  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life. 

*•  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  the  hour  is 
coming,  and  now  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear  the 
voice  of  the  Son  of  God ;  and  they  that  hear  shall 
live." 

"And  shall  come  forth;  they  that  have  done 
good  unto  the  resurrection  of  life ;  and  they  that 
have  done  evil,  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation." 

"  And  this  is  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me,  that 
everyone  which  seeth  the  Son,  and  believeth  on 
him,  may  have  everlasting  life  ;  and  I  will  raise 
him  up  at  the  last  day." 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  487 

' '  No  man  can  come  to  me,  except  the  Father, 
which  hath  sent  me,  draw  him;  and  I  will  raise 
him  up  at  the  last  day." 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  believeth 
on  me  hath  everlasting  life. 

"  I  am  that  bread  of  life. 

"Your  fathers  did  eat  manna  in  the  wilderness, 
and  are  dead. 

"This  is  the  bread  which  cometh  down  from 
heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof,  and  not  die. 

"  I  am  the  living  bread  which  came  down  from 
heaven.  If  any  man  eat  of  this  bread  he  shall  live 
forever;  and  the  bread  that  I  will  give  is  my  flesh, 
which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of  the  world." 

"Then  Jesus  said  unto  them,  verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son 
of  man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you. 

"Whoso  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my 
blood,  hath  eternal  life ;  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at 
the  last  day. 

"  For  my  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  my  blood  is 
drink  indeed. 

"He  that  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my 
blood,  dwelleth  in  me,  and  I  in  him. 


488  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED f 

"As  the  living  Father  hath  sent  me,  and  I  live 
by  the  Father;  so  he  that  eateth  me,  even  he  shall 
live  by  me. 

"This  is  that  bread  which  came  down  from 
heaven;  not  as  your  fathers  did  eat  manna,  and 
are  dead ;  he  that  eateth  of  this  bread  shall  live 
forever." 

"And  he  said,  Therefore  said  I  unto  you,  that 
no  man  can  come  unto  me,  except  it  were  given 
unto  him  of  my  Father." 

"Jesus  said  unto  her,  I  am  the  resurrection  and 
the  life;  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  Hve. 

"  And  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me, 
shall  never  die." 

"He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and  he 
that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world,  shall  keep  it  unto 
life  eternal." 

So  I  find  in  the  book  of  John,  that  in  order  to 
be  saved  we  must  not  only  believe  in  Jesus  Christ, 
but  we  must  eat  the  flesh  and  we  must  drink  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  that  gospel  is  true,  the 
Catholic  Church  is  right.  But  it  is  not  true.  I  can 
not  believe  it,  and  yet  for  all  that,  it  may  be  true. 
But  I  do  not  believe  it.     Neither  do  I  believe  there 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED?  489 

is  any  god  in  the  universe  who  will  damn  a  man 
simply  for  expressing  his  belief. 

"  Why,"  they  say  to  me,  "  suppose  all  this 
should  turn  out  to  be  true,  and  you  should  come  to 
the  day  of  judgment  and  find  all  these  things  to  be 
true.  What  would  you  do  then?"  I  would  walk 
up  like  a  man,  and  say,  "  I  was  mistaken." 

"  And  suppose  God  was  about  to  pass  judgment 
upon  you,  what  would  you  say  ?"  I  would  say  to 
him,  "  Do  unto  others  as  you  would  that  others 
should  do  unto  you."     Why  not? 

I  am  told  that  I  must  render  good  for  evil.  I 
am  told  that  if  smitten  on  one  cheek  I  must  turn  the 
other.  I  am  told  that  I  must  overcome  evil  with 
good.  I  am  told  that  I  must  love  my  enemies  ; 
and  will  it  do  for  this  God  who  tells  me  to  love  my 
enemies  to  damn  his  ?  No,  it  will  not  doo  It  will 
not  do. 

In  the  book  of  John  all  these  doctrines  of 
regeneration — that  it  is  necessary  to  believe  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  that  salvation  depends  upon 
belief — in  this  book  of  John  all  these  doctrines  find 
their  warrant ;  nowhere  else. 

Read  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  then  read 
John,  and  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the  three 


490  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

first  gospels  teach  that  if  we  are  kind  and  forgiving 
to  our  fellows,  God  will  be  kind  and  forgiving  to  us. 
In  John  we  are  told  that  another  man  can  be  good 
for  us,  or  bad  for  us,  and  that  the  only  way  to  get 
to  heaven  is  to  believe  something  that  we  know  is 
not  so. 

All  these  passages  about  believing  in  Christ, 
drinking  his  blood  and  eating  his  flesh,  are  after- 
thoughts. They  were  written  by  the  theologians, 
and  in  a  few  years  they  will  be  considered  un- 
worthy of  the  lips  of  Christ. 


VI. 

THE    CATHOLICS. 

NOW,  upon  these  gospels  that  I  have  read 
the  churches  rest;  and  out  of  these  things, 
mistakes  and  interpolations,  they  have  made  their 
creeds.  And  the  first  church  to  make  a  creed, 
so  far  as  I  know,  was  the  Catholic.  It  was  the  first 
church  that  had  any  power.  That  is  the  church 
that  has  preserved  all  these  miracles  for  us.  That 
is  the  church  that  preserved  the  manuscripts  for  us. 
That  is  the  church  whose  word  we  have  to  take. 
That  church  is  the  first  witness  that  Protestantism 
brought  to  the  bar  of  history  to  prove  miracles  that 
took  place  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  ;  and  while 
the  witness  is  there  Protestantism  takes  pains  to 
say :  **  You  cannot  believe  one  word  that  witness 
says,  now.** 


492  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

That  church  is  the  only  one  that  keeps  up  a 
constant  communication  with  heaven  through  the 
instrumentality  of  a  large  number  of  decayed  saints. 
That  church  has  an  agent  of  God  on  earth,  has  a 
person  who  stands  in  the  place  of  deity  ;  and  that 
church  is  infallible.  That  church  has  persecuted  to 
the  exact  extent  of  her  power— and  always  will. 
In  Spain  that  church  stands  erect,  and  is  arrogant. 
In  the  United  States  that  church  crawls ;  but  the 
object  in  both  countries  is  the  same — and  that  is 
the  destruction  of  intellectual  liberty.  That  church 
teaches  us  that  we  can  make  God  happy  by  being 
miserable  ourselves  ;  that  a  nun  is  holier  in  the 
sight  of  God  than  a  loving  mother  with  her  child  in 
her  thrilled  and  thrilling  arms  ;  that  a  priest  is  better 
than  a  father ;  that  celibacy  is  better  than  that 
passion  of  love  that  has  made  everything  of  beauty 
in  this  world.  That  church  tells  the  girl  of  sixteen 
or  eighteen  years  of  age,  with  eyes  like  dew  and 
light ;  that  girl  with  the  red  of  health  in  the  white 
of  her  beautiful  cheeks  —  tells  that  girl,  "  Put  on 
the  veil,  woven  of  death  and  night,  kneel  upon 
stones,  and  you  will  please  God." 

I  tell  you  that,  by  law,  no  girl  should  be  allowed 
to  take  the  veil  and  renounce  the  joys  and  beau- 
ties of  this  life. 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED?  493 

I  am  opposed  to  allowing  these  spider-like  priests 
to  weave  webs  to  catch  the  loving  maidens  of  the 
world.  There  ought  to  be  a  law  appointing  com- 
missioners to  visit  such  places  twice  a  year  and 
release  every  person  who  expresses  a  desire 
to  be  released.  I  do  not  believe  in  keeping  the 
penitentiaries  of  God.  No  doubt  they  are  honest 
about  it.  That  is  not  the  question.  These  igno- 
rant superstitions  fill  millions  of  lives  with  weari- 
ness and  pain,  with  agony  and  tears. 

This  church,  after  a  few  centuries  of  thought, 
made  a  creed,  and  that  creed  is  the  foundation  of 
the  orthodox  religion.     Let  me  read  it  to  you : 

**  Whosoever  will  be  saved,  before  all  things  it 
is  necessary  that  he  hold  the  Catholic  faith ;  which 
faith  except  every  one  do  keep  entire  and  inviolate, 
without  doubt,  he  shall  everlastingly  perish."  Now 
the  faith  is  this:  "That  we  worship  one  God  in 
trinity  and  trinity  in  unity." 

Of  course  you  understand  how  that  is  done, 
and  there  is  no  need  of  my  explaining  it.  "  Neither 
confounding  the  persons  nor  dividing  the  sub- 
stance." You  see  what  a  predicament  that  would 
leave  the  deity  in  if  you  divided  the  substance. 


494  IVHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

"  For  one  is  the  person  of  the  Father,  another 
of  the  Son,  and  another  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but 
the  Godhead  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  all  one " — you  know  what  I 
mean  by  Godhead.  "  In  glory  equal,  and  in 
majesty  coeternal.  Such  as  the  Father  is,  such  is 
the  Son,  such  is  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Father  is 
uncreated,  the  Son  uncreated,  the  Holy  Ghost  un- 
created. The  Father  incomprehensible,  the  Son 
incomprehensible,  the  Holy  Ghost  incomprehen- 
sible." And  that  is  the  reason  we  know  so  much 
about  the  thing.  "The  Father  is  eternal,  the  Son 
eternal,  the  Holy  Ghost  eternal,  and  yet  therf 
are  not  three  eternals,  only  one  eternal,  as  also 
there  are  not  three  uncreated,  nor  three  incom- 
prehensibles,  only  one  uncreated,  one  incompre- 
hensible." 

"  In  like  manner,  the  Father  is  almighty,  the 
Son  almighty,  the  Holy  Ghost  almighty.  Yet 
there  are  not  three  almighties,  only  one  Almighty. 
So  the  Father  is  God,  the  Son  God,  the  Holy 
Ghost  God,  and  yet  not  three  Gods ;  and  so, 
likewise,  the  Father  is  Lord,  the  Son  is  Lord,  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  Lord,  yet  there  are  not  three 
Lords,  for  as  we  are  compelled  by  the  Christian 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  495 

truth  to  acknowledge  every  person  by  himself  to 
be  God  and  Lord,  so  we  are  all  forbidden  by  the 
Catholic  religion  to  say  there  are  three  Gods,  or 
three  Lords.  The  Father  is  made  of  no  one  ;  not 
created  or  begotten.  The  Son  is  from  the  Father 
alone,  not  made,  not  created,  but  begotten.  The 
Holy  Ghost  is  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  not 
made  nor  begotten,  but  proceeding." 

You  know  what  proceeding  is. 

"  So  there  is  one  Father,  not  three  Fathers." 
Why  should  there  be  three  fathers,  and  only  one 
Son?  "One  Son,  and  not  three  Sons;  one  Holy 
Ghost,  not  three  Holy  Ghosts ;  and  in  this  Trinity 
there  is  nothing  before  or  afterward,  nothing 
greater  or  less,  but  the  whole  three  persons  are 
coeternal  with  one  another  and  coequal,  so  that 
in  all  things  the  unity  is  to  be  worshiped  in 
Trinity,  and  the  Trinity  is  to  be  worshiped  in 
unity.  Those  who  will  be  saved  must  thus  think 
of  the  Trinity.  Furthermore,  it  is  necessary  to 
everlasting  salvation  that  he  also  believe  rightly 
the  incarnation  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Now 
the  right  of  this  thing  is  this :  That  we  believe 
and  confess  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  is  both  God  and  man.     He  is  God  of  the 


496  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED* 

substance  of  his  Father  begotten  before  the  world 
was." 

That  was  a  good  while  before  his  mother  lived. 

"  And  he  is  man  of  the  substance  of  his 
mother,  born  in  this  world,  perfect  God  and 
perfect  man,  and  the  rational  soul  in  human  flesh, 
subsisting  equal  to  the  Father  according  to  his 
Godhead,  but  less  than  the  Father  according  to 
his  manhood,  who  being  both  God  and  man  is  not 
two  but  one,  one  not  by  conversion  of  God  into 
flesh,  but  by  the  taking  of  the  manhood  into  God." 

You  see  that  is  a  great  deal  easier  than  the 
other  way  would  be. 

**  One  altogether,  not  by  a  confusion  of  sub- 
stance but  by  unity  of  person,  for  as  the  rational 
soul  and  the  flesh  is  one  man,  so  God  and  man  is 
one  Christ,  who  suffered  for  our  salvation,  de- 
scended into  hell,  rose  again  the  third  day  from 
the  dead,  ascended  into  heaven,  and  he  sitteth  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  and 
He  shall  come  to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead." 

In  order  to  be  saved  it  is  necessary  to  believe 
this.  What  a  blessing  that  we  do  not  have  to 
understand  it.  And  in  order  to  compel  the  human 
intellect  to  get  upon  its  knees  before  that  infinite 
absurdity,  thousands   and   millions   have   suffered 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  497 

agonies ;  thousands  and  thousands  have  perished  in 
dungeons  and  in  fire ;  and  if  all  the  bones  of  all 
the  victims  of  the  Catholic  Church  could  be 
gathered  together,  a  monument  higher  than  all  the 
pyramids  would  rise,  in  the  presence  of  which  the 
eyes  even  of  priests  would  be  wet  with  tears. 

That  church  covered  Europe  with  cathedrals 
and  dungeons,  and  robbed  men  of  the  jewel  of  the 
soul.  That  church  had  ignorance  upon  its  knees. 
That  church  went  in  partnership  with  the  tyrants 
of  the  throne,  and  between  those  two  vultures,  the 
altar  and  the  throne,  the  heart  of  man  was 
devoured. 

Of  course  I  have  met,  and  cheerfully  admit 
that  there  are  thousands  of  good  Catholics;  but 
Catholicism  is  contrary  to  human  liberty.  Cathol- 
icism bases  salvation  upon  belief.  Catholicism 
teaches  man  to  trample  his  reason  under  foot. 
And  for  that  reason  it  is  wrong. 

Thousands  of  volumes  could  not  contain  the 
crimes  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  could  not 
contain  even  the  names  of  her  victims.  With 
sword  and  fire,  with  rack  and  chain,  with  dungeon 
and  whip  she  endeavored  to  convert  the  world. 
In  weakness  a  beggar — in  power  a  highwayman, — 
alms  dish  or  dagger^ tramp  or  tyrant. 


VII. 

THE   EPISCOPALIANS. 

THE  next  church  I  wish  to  speak  of  is  the 
Episcopalian.  That  was  founded  by  Henry 
VIII.,  now  in  heaven.  He  cast  off  Queen  Catherine 
and  Catholicism  together,  and  he  accepted  Episco- 
palianism  and  Annie  Boleyn  at  the  same  time.  That 
church,  if  it  had  a  few  more  ceremonies,  would  be 
Catholic.  If  it  had  a  few  less,  nothing".  We 
have  an  Episcopalian  Church  in  this  country,  and 
it  has  all  the  imperfections  of  a  poor  relation.  It 
is  always  boasting  of  its  rich  relative.  In  England 
the  creed  is  made  by  law,  the  same  as  we  pass 
statutes  here.  And  when  a  gentleman  dies  in 
England,  in  order  to  determine  whether  he  shall 
be  saved  or  not,  it  is  necessary  for  the  power  of 
heaven  to  read  the  acts  of  Parliament.     It  becomes 

(498) 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  499^ 

a  question  of  law,  and  sometimes  a  man  is 
damned  on  a  very  nice  point.  Lost  on  demurrer. 
A  few  years  ago,  a  gentleman  by  the  name  of 
Seabury,  Samuel  Seabury,  was  sent  over  to 
England  to  get  some  apostolic  succession.  We 
had  not  a  drop  in  the  house.  It  was  necessary  for 
the  bishops  of  the  English  Church  to  put  their 
hands  upon  his  head.  They  refused.  There  was 
no  act  of  Parliament  justifying  it.  He  had  then  to 
go  to  the  Scotch  bishops  ;  and,  had  the  Scotch 
bishops  refused,  we  never  would  have  had  any 
apostolic  succession  in  the  New  World,  and  God 
would  have  been  driven  out  of  half  the  earth,  and 
the  true  church  never  could  have  been  founded 
upon  this  continent.  But  the  Scotch  bishops  put 
their  hands  on  his  head,  and  now  we  have  an 
unbroken  succession  of  heads  and  hands  from  St. 
Paul  to  the  last  bishop. 

In  this  country  the  Episcopalians  have  done 
some  good,  and  I  want  to  thank  that  church. 
Having  on  an  average  less  religion  than  the  others 
— on  an  average  you  have  done  more  good  to 
mankind.  You  preserved  some  of  the  humanities. 
You  did  not  hate  music ;  you  did  not  absolutely 
despise  painting,  and  you  did  not  altogether  abhor 


500  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

architecture,  and  you  finally  admitted  that  it  was 
no  worse  to  keep  time  with  your  feet  than  with 
your  hands.  And  some  went  so  far  as  to  say  that 
people  could  play  cards,  and  that  God  would 
overlook  it,  or  would  look  the  other  way.  For  all 
these  things  accept  my  thanks. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  the  other  churches  looked 
upon  dancing  as  probably  the  mysterious  sin 
against  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  they  used  to  teach 
that  when  four  boys  got  in  a  hay-mow,  playing 
seven-up,  that  the  eternal  God  stood  whetting  the 
sword  of  his  eternal  wrath  waiting  to  strike  them 
down  to  the  lowest  hell.  That  church  has  done 
some  good. 

The  Episcopal  creed  is  substantially  like  the 
Catholic,  containing  a  few  additional  absurdities. 
The  Episcopalians  teach  that  it  is  easier  to  get 
forgiveness  for  sin  after  you  have  been  baptized. 
They  seem  to  think  that  the  moment  you  are 
baptized  you  become  a  member  of  the  firm,  and  as 
such  are  entitled  to  wickedness  at  cost.  This 
church  is  utterly  unsuited  to  a  free  people.  Its 
government  is  tyrannical,  supercilious  and  absurd. 
Bishops  talk  as  though  they  were  responsible  for 
the   souls  in  their  charge.      They  wear  vests  that 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  501 

button  on  one  side.  Nothing  is  so  essential  to  the 
clergy  of  this  denomination  as  a  good  voice.  The 
Episcopalians  have  persecuted  just  to  the  extent  of 
their  power.  Their  treatment  of  the  Irish  has 
been  a  crime — a  crime  lasting  for  three  hundred 
years.  That  church  persecuted  the  Puritans  of 
England  and  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland.  In 
England  the  altar  is  the  mistress  of  the  throne,  and 
this  mistress  has  always  looked  at  honest  wives 
with  scorn. 


VIII. 
THE  METHODISTS. 

ABOUT  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  two 
men,  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitfield, 
said.  If  everybody  is  going  to  hell,  somebody 
ought  to  mention  it.  The  Episcopal  clergy  said: 
Keep  still ;  do  not  tear  your  gown.  Wesley  and 
Whitfield  said:  This  frightful  truth  ought  to  be 
proclaimed  from  the  housetop  of  every  opportu- 
nity, from  the  highway  of  every  occasion.  They 
were  good,  honest  men.  They  believed  their  doc- 
trine. And  they  said:  If  there  is  a  hell,  and  a 
Niagara  of  souls  pouring  over  an  eternal  precipice 
of  ignorance,  somebody  ought  to  say  something. 
They  were  right ;  somebody  ought,  if  such  a  thing 
is  true.  Wesley  was  a  believer  in  the  Bible.  He 
believed  in  the  actual  presence  of  the   Almighty. 

(602) 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  503 

God  used  to  do  miracles  for  him ;  used  to  put  off  a 
rain  several  days  to  give  his  meeting  a  chance; 
used  to  cure  his  horse  of  lameness ;  used  to  cure 
Mr.  Wesley's  headaches. 

And  Mr.  Wesley  also  believed  in  the  actual 
existence  of  the  devil.  He  believed  that  devils 
had  possession  of  people.  He  talked  to  the  devil 
when  he  was  in  folks,  and  the  devil  told  him  that 
he  was  going  to  leave ;  and  that  he  was  going  into 
another  person.  That  he  would  be  there  at  a 
certain  time ;  and  Wesley  went  to  that  other  per- 
son, and  there  the  devil  was,  prompt  to  the  minute. 
He  regarded  every  conversion  as  warfare  between 
God  and  this  devil  for  the  possession  of  that 
human  soul,  and  that  in  the  warfare  God  had 
gained  the  victory.  Honest,  no  doubt.  Mr.  Wes- 
ley did  not  believe  in  human  liberty.  Honest, 
no  doubt.  Was  opposed  to  the  liberty  of  the 
colonies.  Honestly  so.  Mr.  Wesley  preached  a 
sermon  entitled:  "The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Earth- 
quakes," in  which  he  took  the  ground  that  earth- 
quakes were  caused  by  sin ;  and  the  only  way  to 
stop  them  was  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
No  doubt  an  honest  man. 


504  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

Wesley  and  Whitfield  fell  out  on  the  question 
of  predestination.  Wesley  insisted  that  God  in- 
vited everybody  to  the  feast.  Whitfield  said  he 
did  not  invite  those  he  knew  would  not  come. 
Wesley  said  he  did.  Whitfield  said:  Well,  he  did 
not  put  plates  for  them,  anyway.  Wesley  said 
he  did.  So  that,  when  they  were  in  hell  he  could 
show  them  that  there  was  a  seat  left  for  them. 
The  church  that  they  founded  is  still  active.  And 
probably  no  church  in  the  world  has  done  so  much 
preaching  for  as  little  money  as  the  Methodists. 
Whitfield  believed  in  slavery,  and  advocated  the 
slave-trade.  And  it  was  of  Whitfield  that  Whittier 
made  the  two  lines  : 

"  He  bade  the  slave  ships  speed  from  coast  to  coast, 
Fanned  by  the  wings  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  i 

We  have  lately  had  a  meeting  of  the  Metho- 
dists, and  I  find  by  their  statistics  that  they  believe 
that  they  have  converted  130,000  folks  in  a  year. 
That,  in  order  to  do  this,  they  have  26,000  preach- 
ers, 226,000  Sunday  school  scholars,  and  about 
$100,000,000  invested  in  church  property.  I  find, 
in  looking  over  the  history  of  the  world,  that 
there    are    40,000,000   or    50,000,000    of    people 


WHAT  MUST  IV E  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  505 

born  a  year,  and  if  they  are  saved  at  the  rate  of 
130,000  a  year,  about  how  long  will  it  take  that 
doctrine  to  save  this  world  ?  Good,  honest  people ; 
but  they  are  mistaken. 

In  old  times  they  were  very  simple.  Churches 
used  to  be  like  barns.  They  used  to  have  them 
divided — men  on  that  side,  and  women  on  this. 
A  little  barbarous.  We  have  advanced  since  then, 
and  we  now  find  as  a  fact,  demonstrated  by 
experience,  that  a  man  sitting  by  the  woman  he 
loves  can  thank  God  as  heartily  as  though  sitting 
between  two  men  that  he  has  never  been  intro- 
duced to. 

There  is  another  thing  the  Methodists  should 
remember,  and  that  is  that  the  Episcopalians  were 
the  greatest  enemies  they  ever  had.  And  they 
should  remember  that  the  Freethinkers  have 
always  treated  them  kindly  and  well. 

There  is  one  thing  about  the  Methodist  Church 
in  the  North  that  I  like.  But  I  find  that  it  is  not 
Methodism  that  does  that.  I  find  that  the  Metho- 
dist Church  in  the  South  is  as  much  opposed 
to  liberty  as  the  Methodist  Church  North  is  in  favor 
of  liberty.  So  it  is  not  Methodism  that  is  in 
favor  of  liberty  or  slavery.     They  differ  a  little  in 


5o6  WHA  T  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SA  VED  ? 

their  creed  from  the  rest.  They  do  not  beHeve  that 
God  does  everything.  They  believe  that  he  does 
his  part,  and  that  you  must  do  the  rest,  and  that 
getting  to  heaven  is  a  partnership  business.  The 
Methodist  Church  is  adapted  to  new  countries — 
its  ministers  are  generally  uncultured,  and  with 
them  zeal  takes  the  place  of  knowledge.  They 
convert  people  with  noise.  In  the  silence  that 
follows  most  of  the  converts  backslide. 

In  a  little  while  a  struggle  will  commence 
between  the  few  who  are  growing  and  the  ortho- 
dox many.  The  few  will  be  driven  out,  and  the 
church  will  be  governed  by  those  who  believe 
without  understanding. 


IX. 

THE    PRESBYTERIANS. 

THE  next  church  is  the  Presbyterian,  and  in  my 
judgment  the  worst  of  all,  as  far  as  creed  is  con- 
cerned. This  church  was  founded  by  John  Calvin, 
a  murderer ! 

John  Calvin,  having  power  in  Geneva,  inaugu- 
rated human  torture.  Voltaire  abolished  torture 
in  France.  The  man  who  abolished  torture,  if  the 
Christian  religion  be  true,  God  is  now  torturing  in 
hell,  and  the  man  who  inaugurated  torture,  is  now 
a  glorified  angel  in  heaven.     It  will  not  do. 

John  Knox  started  this  doctrine  in  Scotland,  and 
there  is  this  peculiarity  about  Presbyterianism  — 
it  grows  best  where  the  soil  is  poorest.  I  read  the 
other  day  an  account  of  a  meeting  between  John 
Knox    and  John    Calvin.      Imagine    a   dialogue 

(607) 


5o8  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED? 

between  a  pestilence  and  a  famine !  Imagine  a 
conversation  between  a  block  and  an  ax !  As  I 
read  their  conversation  it  seemed  to  me  as  though 
John  Knox  and  John  Calvin  were  made  for  each 
other ;  that  they  fitted  each  other  like  the  upper 
and  lower  jaws  of  a  wild  beast.  They  believed 
happiness  was  a  crime  ;  they  looked  upon  laughter 
as  blasphemy;  and  they  did  all  they  could  to 
destroy  every  human  feeling,  and  to  fill  the  mind 
with  the  infinite  gloom  of  predestination  and 
eternal  death.  They  taught  the  doctrine  that  God 
had  a  right  to  damn  us  because  he  made  us. 
That  is  just  the  reason  that  he  has  not  a  right  to 
damn  us.  There  is  some  dust.  Unconscious  dust ! 
What  right  has  God  to  change  that  unconscious 
dust  into  a  human  being,  when  he  knows  that 
human  being  will  sin ;  when  he  knows  that  human 
being  will  suffer  eternal  agony  ?  Why  not  leave 
him  in  the  unconscious  dust  ?  What  right  has  an 
infinite  God  to  add  to  the  sum  of  human  agony  ? 
Suppose  I  knew  that  I  could  change  that  piece 
of  furniture  into  a  living,  sentient  human  being, 
and  I  knew  that  that  being  would  suffer  untold 
agony  forever.  If  I  did  it,  I  would  be  a  fiend.  I 
would  leave  that  being  in  the  unconscious  dust 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  509 

And  yet  we  are  told  that  we  must  believe  such  a 
doctrine  or  we  are  to  be  eternally  damned!  It 
will  not  do. 

In  1839  there  was  a  division  in  this  church,  and 
they  had  a  lawsuit  to  see  which  was  the  church  of 
God.  And  they  tried  it  by  a  judge  and  jury,  and 
the  jury  decided  that  the  new  school  was  the 
church  of  God,  and  then  they  got  a  new  trial,  and 
the  next  jury  decided  that  the  old  school  was  the 
church  of  God,  and  that  settled  it.  That  church 
teaches  that  infinite  innocence  was  sacrificed  for 
me!  I  do  not  want  it!  I  do  not  wish  to  go  to 
heaven  unless  I  can  settle  by  the  books,  and  go 
there  because  I  ought  to  go  there.  I  have  said, 
and  I  say  again,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  a  charity 
angel.  I  have  no  ambition  to  become  a  winged 
pauper  of  the  skies. 

The  other  day  a  young  gentleman,  a  Presby- 
terian who  had  just  been  converted,  came  to  me 
and  he  gave  me  a  tract,  and  he  told  me  he  was 
perfectly  happy.  Said  I,  **  Do  you  think  a  great 
many  people  are  going  to  hell?"  "Oh,  yes." 
"And  you  are  perfectly  happy?"  Well,  he  did 
not  know  as  he  was,  quite.  "Would  not  you  be 
happier  if  they  were  all  going  to  heaven?"     "Oh, 


5IO  IVHA  T  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SA  VED  ? 

yes."  "  Well,  then,  you  are  not  perfectly  happy  ?  " 
No,  he  did  not  think  he  was.  "  When  you  get 
to  heaven,  then  you  will  be  perfectly  happy  ? " 
"  Oh,  yes."  "  Now,  when  we  are  only  going  to 
hell,  you  are  not  quite  happy  ;  but  when  we  are  in 
hell,  and  you  in  heaven,  then  you  will  be  perfectly 
happy  ?  You  will  not  be  as  decent  when  you  get 
to  be  an  angel  as  you  are  now,  will  you  ?  "  "  Well," 
he  said,  "  that  was  not  exactly  it."  Said  I,  '*  Sup- 
pose your  mother  were  in  hell,  would  you  be  happy 
in  heaven  then?"  "Well,"  he  says,  "I  suppose 
God  would  know  the  best  place  for  mother."  And 
I  thought  to  myself,  then,  if  I  was  a  woman,  I 
would  like  to  have  five  or  six  boys  like  that. 

It  will  not  do.  Heaven  is  where  those  are  we 
love,  and  those  who  love  us.  And  I  wish  to  go  to 
no  world  unless  I  can  be  accompanied  by  those 
who  love  me  here.  Talk  about  the  consolations 
of  this  infamous  doctrine.  The  consolations  of  a 
doctrine  that  makes  a  father  say,  "I  can  be 
happy  with  my  daughter  in  hell;"  that  makes  a 
mother  say,  "I  can  be  happy  with  my  generous, 
brave  boy  in  hell;"  that  makes  a  boy  say,  "I  can 
enjoy  the  glory  of  heaven  with  the  woman  who 
bore  me,  the  woman  who  would  have  died  for  me^ 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED*  511 

in  eternal  agony."     And  they  call  that  tidings  of 
great  joy. 

No  church  has  done  more  to  fill  the  world  with 
gloom  than  the  Presbyterian.  Its  creed  is  frightful, 
hideous,  and  hellish.  The  Presbyterian  god  is  the 
monster  of  monsters.  He  is  an  eternal  execu- 
tioner, jailer  and  turnkey.  He  will  enjoy  forever 
the  shrieks  of  the  lost, —  the  wails  of  the  damned. 
Hell  is  the  festival  of  the  Presbyterian  god. 


THE   EVANGELICAL   ALLIANCE. 

I  HAVE  not  time  to  speak  of  the  Baptists, — 
that  Jeremy  Taylor  said  were  as  much  to  be 
rooted  out  as  anything  that  is  the  greatest  pest 
and  nuisance  on  the  earth.  He  hated  the  Baptists 
because  they  represented,  in  some  little  degree, 
the  liberty  of  thought.  Nor  have  I  time  to  speak 
of  the  Quakers,  the  best  of  all,  and  abused  by  all. 
I  cannot  forget  that  John  Fox,  in  the  year  of  grace 
1640,  was  put  in  the  pillory  and  whipped  from 
town  to  town,  scarred,  put  in  a  dungeon,  beaten, 
trampled  upon,  and  what  for  ?  Simply  because  he 
preached  the  doctrine:  "Thou  shalt  not  resist 
evil  with  evil."  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  enemies." 
Think  of  what  the  church  must  have  been  that 
day  to  scar  the  flesh  of  that  loving  man!     Just 

(612) 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  513 

think  of  it !  I  say  I  have  not  time  to  speak  of  all 
these  sects  —  the  varieties  of  Presbyterians  and 
Campbellites.  There  are  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  these  sects,  all  founded  upon  this  creed  that  I 
read,  differing  simply  in  degree. 

Ah !  but  they  say  to  me  :  You  are  fighting 
something  that  is  dead.  Nobody  believes  this 
now.  The  preachers  do  not  believe  what  they 
preach  in  the  pulpit.  The  people  in  the  pews  do 
not  believe  what  they  hear  preached.  And  they 
say  to  me  :  You  are  fighting  something  that  is  dead. 
This  is  all  a  form,  we  do  not  believe  a  solitary 
creed  in  the  world.  We  sign  them  and  swear  that 
we  believe  them,  but  we  do  not.  And  npne  of  us 
do.  And  all  the  ministers,  they  say  in  private, 
admit  that  they  do  not  believe  it,  not  quite.  I  do 
not  know  whether  this  is  so  or  not.  I  take  it  that 
they  believe  what  they  preach.  I  take  it  that 
when  they  meet  and  solemnly  agree  to  a  creed, 
they  are  honest  and  really  believe  in  that  creed. 
But  let  us  see  if  I  am  waging  a  war  against  the 
ideas  of  the  dead.  Let  us  see  if  I  am  simply 
storming  a  cemetery. 

The  Evangelical  Alliance,  made  up  of  all  ortho- 
dox denominations  of  the  world,  met  only  a  few 


514  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED  t 

years  ago,  and  here  is  their  creed :  They  believe 
in  the  divine  inspiration,  authority  and  sufficiency 
of  the  holy  Scriptures ;  the  right  and  duty  of 
private  judgment  in  the  interpretation  of  the  holy 
Scriptures,  but  if  you  interpret  wrong  you  are 
damned.  They  believe  in  the  unity  of  the  god- 
head and  the  Trinity  of  the  persons  therein.  They 
believe  in  the  utter  depravity  of  human  nature. 
There  can  be  no  more  infamous  doctrine  than  that. 
They  look  upon  a  little  child  as  a  lump  of  depra- 
vity. I  look  upon  it  as  a  bud  of  humanity,  that 
will,  in  the  air  and  light  of  love  and  joy,  blossom 
into  rich  and  glorious  life. 

Total  depravity  of  human  nature!  Here  is  a 
woman  whose  husband  has  been  lost  at  sea ;  the 
news  comes  that  he  has  been  drowned  by  the 
ever-hungry  waves,  and  she  waits.  There  is 
something  in  her  heart  that  tells  her  he  is  alive. 
And  she  waits.  And  years  afterward  as  she  looks 
down  toward  the  little  gate  she  sees  him ;  he  has 
been  given  back  by  the  sea,  and  she  rushes  to 
his  arms,  and  covers  his  face  with  kisses  and 
with  tears.  And  if  that  infamous  doctrine  is  true 
every  tear  is  a  crime,  and  every  kiss  a  blasphemy. 
It  will  not  do.     According  to  that  doctrine,  if  a 


WHAT  MUST. WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVEDf  515 

man  steals  and  repents,  and  takes  back  the 
property,  the  repentance  and  the  taking  back  of 
the  property  are  two  other  crimes.  It  is  an  infamy. 
What  else  do  they  believe?  "The  justification  of 
a  sinner  by  faith  alone,"  without  works  — just 
faith.  Believing  something  that  you  do  not  under- 
stand. Of  course  God  can  not  afford  to  reward  a 
man  for  believing  anything  that  is  reasonable. 
God  rewards  only  for  believing  something  that  is 
unreasonable.  If  you  believe  something  that  is 
improbable  and  unreasonable,  you  are  a  Christian ; 
but  if  you  believe  something  that  you  know  is  not 
so,  then, —  you  are  a  saint. 

They  believe  in  the  eternal  blessedness  of  the 
righteous,  and  in  the  eternal  punishment  of  the 
wicked. 

Tidings  of  great  joy !  They  are  so  good  that 
they  will  not  associate  with  Universalists.  They 
will  not  associate  with  Unitarians;  they  will  not 
associate  with  scientists;  they  will  only  associate 
with  those  who  believe  that  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  damn  the  most 
of  us. 

The  Evangelical  Alliance  reiterates  the  absurd- 
ities of  the  Dark  Ages  —  repeats  the  five  points  of 


5l6  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

Calvin — replenishes  the  fires  of  hell — certifies  to 
the  mistakes  and  miracles  of  the  Bible — maligns 
the  human  race,  and  kneels  to  a  god  who  accepted 
the  agony  of  the  innocent  as  an  atonement  for  the 
guilty. 


XI. 

WHAT    DO   YOU   PROPOSE? 

THEN  they  say  to  me :  *'  What  do  you  propose? 
You  have  torn  this  down,  what  do  you 
propose  to  give  us  in  place  of  it?"  I  have  not 
torn  the  good  down.  I  have  only  endeavored  to 
trample  out  the  ignorant,  cruel  fires  of  hell.  I 
do  not  tear  away  the  passage:  "God  will  be 
merciful  to  the  merciful."  I  do  not  destroy  the 
promise;  "If  you  will  forgive  others,  God  will 
forgive  you."  I  would  not  for  anything  blot  out 
the  faintest  star  that  shines  in  the  horizon  of  human 
despair,  nor  in  the  sky  of  human  hope ;  but  I  will 
do  what  I  can  to  get  that  infinite  shadow  out  of  the 
heart  of  man. 

"What  do  you  propose  in  place  of  this?" 
Well,  in  the  first  place,  I  propose  good  fellow- 
ship— good  friends  all  around.     No  matter  what  we 

(517) 


5ig  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVEDf 

believe,  shake  hands  and  let  it  go.  That  is  your 
opinion ;  this  is  mine :  let  us  be  friends.  Science 
makes  friends;  religion,  superstition,  makes  ene- 
mies. They  say :  Belief  is  important.  I  say :  No, 
actions  are  important.  Judge  by  deed,  not  by 
creed.  Good  fellowship — good  friends — sincere 
men  and  women — mutual  forbearance,  born  of 
mutual  respect.  We  have  had  too  many  of  these 
solemn  people.  Whenever  I  see  an  exceedingly 
solemn  man,  I  know  he  is  an  exceedingly  stupid 
man.  No  man  of  any  humor  ever  founded  a 
religion — never.  Humor  sees  both  sides.  While 
reason  is  the  holy  light,  humor  carries  the  lantern, 
and  the  man  with  a  keen  sense  of  humor  is  pre- 
served from  the  solemn  stupidities  of  superstition. 
I  like  a  man  who  has  got  good  feeling  for  every- 
body; good  fellowship.    One  man  said  to  another: 

"  Will  you  take  a  glass  of  wine?  " 

'•I  do  not  drink." 

"Will  you  smoke  a  cigar?" 

**I  do  not  smoke." 

**  Maybe  you  will  chew  something?" 

••  I  do  not  chew." 

'•  Let  us  eat  some  hay." 

*•  I  tell  you  I  do  not  eat  hay." 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f  519 

"Well,  then,  good-by,  for  you  are  no  company 
for  man  or  beast." 

I  believe  in  the  gospel  of  Cheerfulness,  the 
gospel  of  Good  Nature ;  the  gospel  of  Good  Health. 
Let  us  pay  some  attention  to  our  bodies.  Take 
care  of  our  bodies,  and  our  souls  will  take  care  of 
themselves.  Good  health!  And  I  believe  the 
time  will  come  when  the  public  thought  will  be  so 
great  and  grand  that  it  will  be  looked  upon  as 
infamous  to  perpetuate  disease.  I  believe  the  time 
will  come  when  man  will  not  fill  the  future  with 
consumption  and  insanity.  I  believe  the  time  will 
come  when  we  will  study  ourselves,  and  understand 
the  laws  of  health  and  then  we  will  say :  We  are 
under  obligation  to  put  the  flags  of  health  in  the 
cheeks  of  our  children.  Even  if  I  got  to  heaven, 
and  had  a  harp,  I  would  hate  to  look  back  upon  my 
children  and  grandchildren,  and  see  them  diseased, 
deformed,  crazed  —  all  suffering  the  penalties  of 
crimes  I  had  committed. 

I  believe  in  the  gospel  of  Good  Living.  You  can 
not  make  any  god  happy  by  fasting.  Let  us  have 
good  food,  and  let  us  have  it  well  cooked — and  it 
is  a  thousand  times  better  to  know  how  to  cook 
than  it  is  to  understand  any  theology  in  the  world. 


520  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED f 

I  believe  in  the  gospel  of  good  clothes ;  I  believe 
in  the  gospel  of  good  houses ;  in  the  gospel  of 
water  and  soap.  I  believe  in  the  gospel  of  intel- 
ligence ;  in  the  gospel  of  education.  The  school- 
house  is  my  cathedral.  The  universe  is  my  Bible, 
I  believe  in  that  gospel  of  justice,  that  we  must 
reap  what  we  sow. 

I  do  not  believe  in  forgiveness  as  it  is  preached 
by  the  church.  We  do  not  need  the  forgiveness 
of  God,  but  of  each  other  and  of  ourselves.  If  I 
rob  Mr.  Smith  and  God  forgives  me,  how  does 
that  help  Smith  ?  If  I,  by  slander,  cover  some 
poor  girl  with  the  leprosy  of  some  imputed  crime, 
and  she  withers  away  like  a  blighted  flower  and 
afterward  I  get  the  forgiveness  of  God,  how  does 
that  help  her  ?  If  there  is  another  world,  we  have 
got  to  settle  with  the  people  we  have  wronged  in 
this.  No  bankrupt  court  there.  Every  cent  must 
be  paid. 

The  Christians  say,  that  among  the  ancient 
Jews,  if  you  committed  a  crime  you  had  to  kill  a 
sheep.  Now  they  say  **  charge  it."  "  Put  it  on  the 
slate."  It  will  not  do.  For  every  crime  you  com- 
mit you  must  answer  to  yourself  and  to  the  one  you 
injure.      And   if    you    have    ever   clothed   another 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO   TO  BE  SAVED f  52V 

with  woe,  as  with  a  garment  of  pain,  you  will  never 
be  quite  as  happy  as  though  you  had  not  done 
that  thing.  No  forgiveness  by  the  gods.  Eternal, 
inexorable,  everlasting  justice,  so  far  as  Nature  is 
concerned.  You  must  reap  the  result  of  your  acts. 
Even  when  forgiven  by  the  one  you  have  injured, 
it  is  not  as  though  the  injury  had  not  been  done. 
That  is  what  I  believe  in.  And  if  it  goes  hard 
with  me,  I  will  stand  it,  and  I  will  cling  to  my 
logic,  and  I  will  bear  it  like  a  man. 

And  I  believe,  too,  in  the  gospel  of  Liberty,  in 
giving  to  others  what  we  claim  for  ourselves.  I 
believe  there  is  room  everywhere  for  thought,  and 
the  more  liberty  you  give  away,  the  more  you  will 
have.  In  liberty  extravagance  is  economy.  Let 
us  be  just.     Let  us  be  generous  to  each  other. 

I  believe  in  the  gospel  of  Intelligence.  That  is 
the  only  lever  capable  of  raising  mankind.  Intelli- 
gence must  be  the  savior  of  this  world.  Humanity 
is  the  grand  religion,  and  no  God  can  put  a  man 
in  hell  in  another  world,  who  has  made  a  little 
heaven  in  this.  God  cannot  make  a  man  miser- 
able if  that  man  has  made  somebody  else  happy. 
God  cannot  hate  anybody  who  is  capable  of  loving 
anybody.  Humanity  —  that  word  embraces  all 
there  is. 


522  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

So  I  believe  in  this  great  gospel  of  Humanity. 

"Ah!  but,"  they  say,  "it  will  not  do.  You 
must  believe."  I  say,  No.  My  gospel  of  health 
will  bring  life.  My  gospel  of  intelligence,  my 
gospel  of  good  living,  my  gospel  of  good-fel- 
lowship will  cover  the  world  with  happy  homes. 
My  doctrine  will  put  carpets  upon  your  floors, 
pictures  upon  your  walls.  My  doctrine  will  put 
books  upon  your  shelves,  ideas  in  your  minds. 
My  doctrine  will  rid  the  world  of  the  abnormal 
monsters  born  of  ignorance  and  superstition. 
My  doctrine  will  give  us  health,  wealth  and 
happiness.  That  is  what  I  want.  That  is  what  I 
believe  in.  Give  us  intelligence.  In  a  little  while 
a  man  will  find  that  he  can  not  steal  without 
robbing  himself.  He  will  find  that  he  cannot 
murder  without  assassinating  his  own  joy.  H(j 
will  find  that  every  crime  is  a  mistake.  He  will 
find  that  only  that  man  carries  the  cross  who  does 
wrong,  and  that  upon  the  man  who  does  right  the 
cross  turns  to  wings  that  will  bear  him  upward 
forever.  He  will  find  that  even  intelligent  self- 
love  embraces  within  its  mighty  arms  all  the  hunian 
race. 


WEAT  MVST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  523 

"  Oh,"  but  they  say  to  me,  "  you  take  away 
immortality."  I  do  not.  If  we  are  immortal  it  is  a 
fact  in  nature,  and  we  are  not  indebted  to  priests 
for  it,  nor  to  bibles  for  it,  and  it  cannot  be  des- 
troyed by  unbelief. 

As  long  as  we  love  we  will  hope  to  live,  and 
when  the  one  dies  that  we  love  we  will  say :  "  Oh, 
that  we  could  meet  again,"  and  whether  we  do  or 
not  it  will  not  be  the  work  of  theology.  It  will  be 
a  fact  in  nature.  I  would  not  for  my  life  destroy 
one  star  of  human  hope,  but  I  want  it  so  that 
when  a  poor  woman  rocks  the  cradle  and  sings  a 
lullaby  to  the  dimpled  darling,  she  will  not  be 
compelled  to  believe  that  ninety-nine  chances  in  a 
hundred  she  is  raising  kindling  wood  for  hell. 

One  world  at  a  time  is  my  doctrine. 
It  is  said  in  this  Testament,  "  Sufficient  unto  the 
day  is  the   evil  thereof;"   and   I    say:     Sufficient 
unto  each  world  is  the  evil  thereof. 

And  suppose  after  all  that  death  does  end  all. 
Next  to  eternal  joy,  next  to  being  forever  with 
those  we  love  and  those  who  have  loved  us,  next 
to  that,  is  to  be  wrapt  in  the  dreamless  drapery  of 
eternal  peace.  Next  to  eternal  life  is  eternal  sleep. 
Upon   the    shadowy   shore   of  death    the   sea   of 


524  WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED? 

trouble  casts  no  wave.  Eyes  that  have  been  cur- 
tained by  the  everlasting  dark,  will  never  know 
again  the  burning  touch  of  tears.  Lips  touched 
by  eternal  silence  will  never  speak  again  the 
broken  words  of  grief.  Hearts  of  dust  do  not 
break.  The  dead  do  not  weep.  Within  the  tomb 
no  veiled  and  weeping  sorrow  sits,  and  in  the  ray- 
less  gloom  is  crouched  no  shuddering  fear. 

I  had  rather  think  of  those  I  have  loved,  and 
lost,  as  having  returned  to  earth,  as  having  become 
a  part  of  the  elemental  wealth  of  the  world — I 
would  rather  think  of  them  as  unconscious  dust,  I 
would  rather  dream  of  them  as  gurgling  in  the 
streams,  floating  in  the  clouds,  bursting  in  the  foam 
of  light  upon  the  shores  of  worlds,  I  would  rather 
think  of  them  as  the  lost  visions  of  a  forgotten 
night,  than  to  have  even  the  faintest  fear  that 
their  naked  souls  have  been  clutched  by  an  ortho- 
dox god.  I  will  leave  my  dead  where  nature 
leaves  them.  Whatever  flower  of  hope  springs 
up  in  my  heart  I  will  cherish,  I  will  give  it  breath 
of  sighs  and  rain  of  tears.  But  I  can  not  believe 
that  there  is  any  being  in  this  universe  who  has 
created  a  human  soul  for  eternal  pain.  I  would 
rather  that  every  god  would  destroy  himself ;   I 


WHAT  MUST  WE  DO  TO  BE  SAVED?  525 

would  rather  that  we  all  should  go  to  eternal 
chaos,  to  black  and  starless  night,  than  that  just 
one  soul  should  suffer  eternal  agony. 

I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  if  there  is  a  God, 
he  will  be  merciful  to  the  merciful. 

Upon  that  rock  I  stand. — 

That  he  will  not  torture  the  forgiving. — 

Upon  that  rock  I  stand. — 

That  every  man  should  be  true  to  himself,  and 
that  there  is  no  world,  no  star,  in  which  honesty  is 
a  crime. 

Upon  that  rock  I  stand. 

The  honest  man,  the  good  woman,  the  happy 
child,  have  nothing  to  fear,  either  in  this  world  or 
the  world  to  come. 

Upon  that  rock  I  stand. 


¥. 


